My husband and I are acquiring a brand new apartment in Barking and my conveyancer is informing me that she is duty bound to the bank to reveal incentives from the developer. I am on a tight deadline to exchange contracts and I would rather not prolong matters. Is my lawyer right?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancer. A precondition to being on a bank panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
I am about to put an offer on a leasehold property in Barking. The estate agents advise that it is the norm for flats in Barking to have less than 75 years left on the lease. I am obtaining a mortgage with Bank of Ireland. Will the property be mortgageable given that the lease has 70 years to go.
Most leasehold conveyancing experts should be able to deal with a lease extension. if you are securing a mortgage then your lender may insist that the lease be extended before competition. Bank of Ireland have specific requirements as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook in relation to minimum unexpired lease terms. As of 9/6/2026 the requirements read as follows :
I happen to be the only beneficiary of my late father’s will and I have everything in my name now, including the my former home in Barking. Conveyancing formalities meant that the Land Registry date was in May. I want to move. I do know about the Mortgage Lenders 6 month 'rule', which means that my proprietorship may be considered the same way as if I'd bought the property in May. Do I have to wait 6 months to sell?
The CML handbook mandates solicitors to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." By the strict wording you could be caught by that. How practical a view lenders take of it, depend on the lender as this obligation is chiefly there to pick up on the purchase and immediately sell or the flipping of properties.
is it true that all Barking conveyancing solicitors on the Lloyds conveyancing panel are regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority?
As solicitors, in order to be on the Lloyds approved list of solicitors they would need to be governed by the SRA. The majority of banks do allow licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such organisation would be governed by the CLC.
We previously instructed conveyancing lawyers located in Barking on the UBS solicitor panel. They have just billed me a further fee for dealing with the UBS mortgage. Is this a supplemental conveyancing fee specified by UBS?
As unfair as it may seem, as long as it’s in their Terms and Conditions or Quote then yes your conveyancing practitioner is entitled to levy a fee for this. The fee is not set by UBS but by your Barking lawyer. Numerous firms on the UBS panel will quote an ‘acting for lender’ fee but many firms incorporate it on their overall fee.
My wife and I own a semi-detached Victorian property in Barking. Conveyancing solicitor represented me and HSBC Bank. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are a couple of entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold with the exact same property. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You should read the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Barking and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they sell they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with buyers. You can also check the position with the conveyancing lawyer who conducted the conveyancing.
I'm buying a new build house in Barking with a mortgage from Barclays Direct. The sellers refused to move on the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of additionals instead. The property agent suggested that I not to tell my conveyancer about the deal as it will put at risk my loan with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.
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.
Midway through the sale of a leasehold flat in Barking. Conveyancing is fine but we are being charged a fortune from the managing agents. So far we have issued a cheque for £275 for a leasehold management information and then another £118 for responses to queries supplied by the buyers property lawyer.
You will not have any say over the extent of the charges for this information however the typical fee for the information for Barking leasehold premises is £360. When it comes to Barking conveyancing transactions it is usual for the owner to pay for these charges. The landlord or their agents are under no statutory obligation to answer these questions although many will agree to do so - albeit often at high prices disproportionate to the work involved. Regretfully there is no statute that requires fixed charges for administrative tasks. Neither is there any statutory time limit by which they are duty bound to provide the information.