My wife and I are hoping to buy a property in Bristol and have instructed a Bristol conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Aldermore have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Bristol lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers 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 Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer should contact your bank and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Bristol lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
The owners of the home we are purchasing have instructed a conveyancing practitioner in Bristol who has recommended a lock out contract with a payment of 5k. Are such agreements sensible?
Lock out agreements are agreements binding a home vendor and purchaser granting the buyer a ‘clear field’ to purchase the property for a certain period of time. Essentially, an exclusivity agreement is a contract specifying that you will receive a contract at a later time which is the contract for the actual sale. It is generally used for buyer confidence though in many situations, the proprietor may enjoy an upside from such agreements as well. There are numerous pros and cons to having an agreement but you should to check with your conveyancer but note that it may end up incurring more in conveyancing charges. In light of these reasons these contracts are avoided in relation to conveyancing in Bristol.
five months have elapsed since my purchase conveyancing in Bristol concluded. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £200,000 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 residence 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 am looking for a flat up to £305k and identified one round the corner in Bristol I like with open areas and railway links in the vicinity, however it's only got 61 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Bristol suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake buying a lease with such few years left?
If you need a mortgage the shortness of the lease will be a potential deal breaker. Reduce the price by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you may ask them to start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer concerning this matter.
I am thinking of appointing a conveyancing solicitor in Bristol for my sale. Is there any facility to review a firm’s record with the profession’s regulator?
One may see published Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) decisions resulting from inquisitions started on or after 1 January 2008. Visit Check a solicitor's record. To find details Pre 2008, or to check a firm's record, call 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and 09.30 - 18.00 Tuesday. International callers, call +44 (0)121 329 6800. The SRA may monitor telephone calls for training purposes.
Much to my surprise my solicitor in Bristol is asking me for ID documents asserting that this forms part of his obligations as a solicitor on the mortgage company Solicitor panel. Can this be correct?
Due to Money Laundering Regulations your conveyancing lawyer is duty bound to confirm positively your identification when entering into a business relationship with you. It is a criminal offence if your lawyer not do this. If you do not provide ID early in the transaction the solicitor must refuse to act for you. It’s unlikely a lawyer will turn you away if you come to the first meeting without relevant ID but you will have to produce it at some point so you might as well bring it with you to the initial meeting so the lawyer can tick the ID verification box and start sorting out the conveyancing straight away. If you are getting a mortgage, your lawyer also has to check ID documents to satisfy the lender. This is not unique to conveyancing in Bristol