My husband and I are looking to acquire a home in Acocks Green and have instructed a Acocks Green conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Platform Home Loans Ltd have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Acocks Green conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the purchaser's lender. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your lender and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Acocks Green solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
I am buying a right to buy a flat in Acocks Green. Conveyancing solicitors are said to be ‘a necessary evil’ but can I do it myself?
Leaving aside the complexities and merits of DIY conveyancing in Acocks Green you will have to appoint a solicitor on your mortgage company's conveyancing panel to look after their interests. Most people therefore find it easier to let the solicitor act for them and the lender. Furthermore there is minimal cost savings to be made in you doing conveyancing for yourself and another lawyer conducting the conveyancing for the lender. Please feel free to use the search tool to find a lawyer on your lender panel in Acocks Green.
I have a mortgage with Kent Reliance for my property in Acocks Green. Conveyancing was finalised 12 months ago. In the event that I decide to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Kent Reliance?
Kent Reliance must be informed of your intention in advance of renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Kent Reliance’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Kent Reliance directly. You need not do this via a Kent Reliance conveyancing panel firm.
After much negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Acocks Green. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their property lawyer. I paid an on account payment of £150. Not long after, the conveyancer contacted me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Nationwide conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Nationwide panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
About to purchase house in Acocks Green. I have received an online quote from a licenced conveyancer, which states: "There will be no charge for dealing with the Lender if you are obtaining a mortgage". I take this to mean that there will be no additional fee if the solicitor is on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel. I wanted to make sure it means there will be no additional fees for dealing with the mortgage.
They are simply saying that the cost for acting for the lender is included in the fee being quoted. It is worth you checking that the Acocks Green conveyancer is on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel.
Is it necessary to take out insurance to protect me from financial exposure to chancel repairs when acquiring a property in Acocks Green?
Unless a prior acquisition of the property took place after 12 October 2013 you may expect solicitors conducting conveyancing in Acocks Green to remain encouraging a chancel search and or chancel repair liability insurance.
I used Wolstenholmes a few years past for my conveyancing in Acocks Green. Now, I need the documents but the law firm has closed. What do I do?
You should call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracing your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Acocks Green of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously hired, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
I'm buying my first flat in Acocks Green with a loan from Accord Mortgages Ltd. The builders refused to budge the price so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not reveal to my lawyer about the extras as it may adversely affect my mortgage with the lender. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.