My husband and I are hoping to buy a house in Baglan and are in fact using a Baglan conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Coventry Building Society have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Baglan lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent 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 Accreditation 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 solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Baglan lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
Me and my partner are about to complete buying a property in Baglan but as a consequence of wreckage from some water damage at the property I have was able negotiate reparation from the owner of £3k by way of a reduction in the price. This was going to be addressed as part of a side agreement yet Barclays are not allowing this. Should they have been informed?
Your conveyancer being on a Barclays approved list is obliged to disclose to Barclays of any changes to the purchase price. If you prohibit your conveyancer to disclose the price change to Barclays then they would have to discontinue acting for you. In addition, Barclays and you would have to appoint a new conveyancing practitioner for your conveyancing in Baglan.
Finally the sale completed on my house in Baglan last March but our buyer keeps texting daily to say their solicitor needs to hear from mine. What should have happened now that I have sold?
Following your house sale your lawyer is duty bound to forward the transfer deeds and all supplemental paperwork to the purchaser's lawyers. If applicable, your solicitor should also send confirmation that the home loan has been paid off to the buyers lawyers. There are no post completion requirements unique to conveyancing in Baglan.
I am selling my flat in Baglan. Will the conveyancing practitioner have to be required to be on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel in order to deal with repayment of my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their panel criteria fairly frequently in recent years.
I have been told that property searches are the number one cause of obstruction in Baglan conveyancing transactions. Is that correct?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) published findings of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not feature amongst the top 10 causes of hindrances in the conveyancing process. Local searches are not likely to be the root cause of holding up conveyancing in Baglan.
How does conveyancing in Baglan differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build premises in Baglan contact us having been asked by the developer to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the house is built. This is because builders in Baglan typically purchase the real estate, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancing solicitors as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are used to new build conveyancing in Baglan or who has acted in the same development.