We are purchasing a 3 bedroom flat in Beacon Hill with a mortgage. We like our Beacon Hill solicitor, however the bank advise he's not on their "panel". We have to appoint one of the bank panel conveyancing practices or continue with our Beacon Hill solicitor and pay for one of their panel firms to represent them. This seems very unfair; can we not require that the lender use our Beacon Hill solicitor ?
Unfortunately,no. Your mortgage offer is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the lender’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 Beacon Hill conveyancing solicitor to apply to be on the conveyancing panel.
My partner and I are refinancing our apartment in Beacon Hill with UBS. 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 lives in the flat. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the apartment is repossessed. I have two questions (1) Is this document specific to the UBS conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 3 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this compromise his rights to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your UBS 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 UBS. This is solely used to protect UBS 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 UBS 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.
It has been four months since my purchase conveyancing in Beacon Hill completed. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £175,000 when infact I paid £215,000. 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 premises 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.
I have been on the look out for a flat up to £305k and identified one near me in Beacon Hill I like with a park and railway links nearby, the downside is that it only has 49 years on the lease. There is not much else in Beacon Hill suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a lease with such few years left?
Should you need a home loan the shortness of the lease will be a potential deal breaker. Discount the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you can ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor concerning this.
I'm refinancing my existing property to a buy to let mortgage with Bank of Scotland and I will use the ballance of the raised equity towards another house. The area we are looking at is Beacon Hill. Will your solicitors be able to act for both sets of banks and tie in the transactions?
Make use of our search tool on this site to check that the conveyancers are on the relevant lender panels. Having checked that they are the solicitor should be able to tie up the two deals but you should talk with you lawyer and make clear your expectations and needs.
I need to instruct a conveyancing solicitor for freehold conveyancing in Beacon Hill. I have stumble across a web site which appears to be the perfect solution If it is possible to get all this stuff done via phone that would be preferable. Should I be concerned? What are the potential pitfalls?
As usual with these online conveyancers you need to read ALL the small print - did you notice the extra charge for dealing with the mortgage?