My wife and I are hoping to purchase a home in Carlton and are in fact using a Carlton conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Platform Home Loans Ltd have this morning contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Carlton lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is usual 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor 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 Carlton lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
Finally the sale completed on my house in Carlton last March yet the purchaser is texting daily complaining that their conveyancer is waiting to hear from mine. What are the post completion sale legalities now that I have sold?
Following your disposal your lawyer is duty bound to send the transfer deeds and all of the paperwork to the purchaser's lawyers. Where relevant, your lawyer must also confirm that the home loan has been redeemed to the buyers solicitors. There is unlikely to be post completion formalities specific conveyancing in Carlton.
I am selling my home in Carlton. Will my lawyer have to be on the RBS conveyancing panel in order to deal with paying off my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the RBS conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their requirements fairly frequently currently.
What does a local search inform me regarding the property my wife and I purchasing in Carlton?
Carlton conveyancing often commences with the ordering local authority searches directly from your local Authority or through a personal search organisations such as PSG The local search is essential in every Carlton conveyancing purchase; that is if you wish to avoid any unpleasant surprises after you move into your property. The search should provide information 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 thirteen subject areas.
I need to instruct a conveyancing lawyer in Carlton for my purchase. Can I review a solicitor's complaints history with the legal regulator?
One may read published Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) decisions resulting from investigations from 2008 onwards. Go to Check a solicitor's record. For details Pre 2008, or to check a solicitors history, telephone 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 any week day save for Tuesday when lines open at 9.30am. For non-uk callers, call +44 (0)121 329 6800. The SRA may monitor telephone calls for training reasons.
Our property lawyer in Carlton has informed me that he requires proof of ID documents saying that this is part of his obligations as a conveyancer on the lender Conveyancing panel. Am I being spun a yarn?
Anti-terror and anti-money-laundering rules require Carlton conveyancing solicitors and licensed conveyancers to verify the identity of the person or body they are dealing with before they can accept their conveyancing business. The Terms and Conditions that you need to sign will no doubt confirm this. Your lawyer is right that the bank also require certain documents to be viewed. If a you refuse to provide ID verification documents, your conveyancer would not be able to accept instructions from you. Your lawyer also has obligations to obtain certain documents in accordance with the bank's UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements