Me and my fiance are purchasing a 2 bedroom flat in Aldershot with a mortgage. We like our Aldershot conveyancer, but the lender says he's not on their "panel". We have to appoint one of the mortgage company panel solicitors or continue with our Aldershot conveyancing practitioner as well as pay for one of their panel lawyers to act for them. This seems very unfair; are we not able to require that the lender use our Aldershot conveyancing practitioner ?
No, not really. Your mortgage offer is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the bank’s conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. Another option that might be available is for your Aldershot conveyancing lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel.
My partner and I intend to remortgage our penthouse in Aldershot with Santander. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the apartment is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Santander conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 4 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this extinguish his rights to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Santander conveyancing panel solicitor is doing the right thing as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to Santander. This is solely used to protect Santander if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave. It does not impact your son’s right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of Santander had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.
Is there a reason why leasehold purchase conveyancing in Aldershot is more expensive?
Aldershot leasehold conveyancing transactions usually involve additional investigations than freeholds including investigating the Lease, liaising with the Landlord such as serving appropriate notices on the Landlord or managing agent, obtaining up-to-date service charge and management information, obtaining Landlord’s consents and reviewing management accounts and formation documents.
My Conveyancer in Aldershot has never been on on the Aldermore Conveyancing Panel. Is it possible for me to continue with my prefered solicitor notwithstanding that they are not on the Aldermore list of approved lawyers?
Your options are as follows:
- Complete the purchase with your preferred Aldershot lawyers but Aldermore will need to retain a lawyer on their list of acceptable firms. This will inevitably rack up the overall legal fees as well as cause frustration.
- Get a new solicitor to to deal with the conveyancing, remembering to check they are Convince your conveyancer to use their best endeavours to join the Aldermore conveyancing panel
Should commercial conveyancing searches reveal impending roadworks that could impact a commercial land in Aldershot?
Many commercial conveyancing solicitors in Aldershot will conduct a SiteSolutions Highways report as it reduces the time that conveyancers spend in looking into accurate data on highways that impact buildings and development assets in Aldershot. The report provides definitive information on the adoption status of roads, footpaths and verges, as well as the implication of traffic schemes and the rights of way surrounding a commercial development sites in Aldershot.
For every commercial conveyancing transaction in Aldershot it is critical to investigate the adoption status of roads surrounding a site. The absence of identifying developments where adoption procedures have not been dealt with adequately may result in delays to Aldershot commercial conveyancing deals as well as pose a risk to future plans for the site. These searches are not carried out for domestic conveyancing in Aldershot.
I used Wolstenholmes a few years past for my conveyancing in Aldershot. Now, I need the files but the law firm is no longer operating. What do I do?
Do 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 Aldershot 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.