I am nearing exchange of contracts for my ground floor flat in Barnes Cray and the estate agent has just called to advise that the purchasers are appointing a new property lawyer. The reason given is that the mortgage company will only deal with solicitors on their approved list. On what basis would a leading lender only deal with certain law firms rather the firm that they want to appoint to handle their conveyancing in Barnes Cray ?
Lenders have always had an approved set of law firms that can act for them, but in the past few years big names such as Nationwide, have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for more than 25 years.
Mortgage companies point to the increase in fraud as the reason for the cull – criteria have been narrowed as a smaller panel is easier to oversee. No lender will say how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society says it is being contacted daily by practices that have been removed from panels. Plenty of firms do not even realise they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. The buyers are unlikely to have any sway in the decision.
What is the first thing I need to know about purchase conveyancing in Barnes Cray?
Not many law firms shout this from the rooftops but conveyancing in Barnes Cray or throughout England and Wales is an adversarial process. In other words, when it comes to conveyancing there exists plenty of room for friction between you and others involved in the home moving process. For example, the seller, estate agent and on occasion the mortgage company. Selecting a solicitor for your conveyancing in Barnes Cray an important selection as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONE person in the process whose interest is to look after your best interests and to keep you safe.
We are witnessing a definite ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone must be blamed for the process taking so long. We recommend that you your first instinct should be to trust your conveyancer ahead of all other parties in the home moving process.
The Barnes Cray conveyancing lawyers that just started acting on my purchase in Barnes Cray have without warning shut down. I only went with them because I needed a lawyer on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel and my preferred Barnes Cray lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take one hundred and fifty pounds for searches. What do I do now?
If you have an estate agent involved then let them know straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors may be able to assist.
2 months have gone by since my purchase conveyancing in Barnes Cray concluded. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £175,000 when infact I paid £160,000. Why the discrepancy?
The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the asset from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.
Should I instruct a Barnes Cray conveyancing practitioner who is local to the property I am purchasing? We have a good friend who can deal with the legal work however they are based 300kilometers drive away.
The benefit of a local Barnes Cray conveyancing practice is that you can drop in to execute paperwork, hand in your ID and pester them where appropriate. They will also have local knowledge which is a bonus. That being said it's more important to get someone that will do a good and efficient job. If other friends have instructed your friend and the majority were happy that should surpass using an unfamiliar Barnes Cray conveyancing lawyer solely due to them being Barnes Cray based.
I am a negotiator for a busy estate agent office in Barnes Cray where we see a number of flat sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Barnes Cray conveyancing firms. Please can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?
Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.
An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the buyer.
I inherited a garden flat in Barnes Cray. In the absence of agreement between myself and the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the premium due for a lease extension?
if there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to make a decision on the sum to be paid.
An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Barnes Cray premises is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case affected 13 flats. The unexpired term was 76 years.