My wife and I are hoping to purchase a home in Bedfordshire and are in fact using a Bedfordshire conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Clydesdale have this morning contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Bedfordshire conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 Quality 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Bedfordshire solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
I had intended to instruct a conveyancing solicitor in Bedfordshire for our house move. Our broker has since advised us that our mortgage company Alliance & Leicester won't deal with them. Why is this not regarded as unfair competition?
Pre- 2008 most lenders had a different appetite for risk. Almost all Bedfordshire conveyancing firms would have been on many mortgage company panels. The FSA in 2010 carried out a thematic investigation into mortgage fraud which concluded: mortgage lenders should know the conveyancing solicitors dealt with. Consequently, lenders are increasingly seeing more data from law firms about their operations and their employees and set certain criteria such a completing on a minimum volume of conveyancing. Many Bedfordshire conveyancing firms that have been excluded from lender panels have Unblemished track record, no complaints and no claims and didn't just 'dabble' in conveyancing. Bedfordshire is amongst the numerous locations where the conveyancers showing on our search results are are approved Alliance & Leicester .
What can a local search reveal about the house my wife and I buying in Bedfordshire?
Bedfordshire conveyancing often commences with the submitting local authority searches directly from your local Authority or through a personal search organisations for example Xpress Legal The local search plays an important role in most Bedfordshire conveyancing purchase; that is if you don’t want any unpleasant surprises after you move into your property. The search will provide data on, amongst other things, details on planning applications relevant to the property (whether granted or refused), building control history, any enforcement action, restrictions on permitted development, nearby road schemes, contaminated land and radon gas; in all a total of 13 topic headings.
I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold issue on a property I have offered on two weeks back in what should have been a quick, no chain conveyancing. Bedfordshire is where the house is located. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in Bedfordshire are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Bedfordshire you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds very carefully. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Bedfordshire may ascertain that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold premises.
I am looking into buying my first house which is in Bedfordshire and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Bedfordshire. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Bedfordshire area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?
Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Bedfordshire. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found
My fiance and I are purchasing a three room first floor flatin Bedfordshire with a loan from a lender. We wish to instruct our conveyancer in Bedfordshire yet our mortgage company inform us now that she’s not approved on their "panel". Apparently we need to choose one of the our mortgage company panel solicitors or stay with our Bedfordshire conveyancer and pay for one of their panel ones to represent them. This seems very unfair; Can we not simply insist that our bank use our Bedfordshire lawyer?
No, not really. The bank mortgage issued is subject to conditions, one of which will be that solicitors will on the bank's conveyancing panel. in the past, most mortgage companies had large numbers of law firms on their panels, including almost all conveyancing solicitors in Bedfordshire : 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 lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for your lender.