My wife and I are looking to acquire a house in Chadderton and have appointed a Chadderton conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Skipton Building Society have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Chadderton solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the mortgage company. 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 mortgage company 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Chadderton solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
The Chadderton conveyancing firm handling our Chadderton conveyancing has spotted a discrepancy when comparing the surveyor’s assumptions in the home valuation report and what is revealed within the legal papers for the property. My lawyer informs me that he is duty bound to check that the lender is happy with this discrepancy and is content to go ahead. Is my conveyancer’s approach correct?
Your property lawyer must comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions which do require that your lawyer disclose any incorrect assumptions in the lender’s valuation report and the legal papers. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your lawyer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up during conveyancing in Chadderton?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Chadderton. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’
I'm purchasing a new build house in Chadderton with a mortgage from Alliance & Leicester . The sellers refused to budge the amount so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The house builders rep told me not to tell my solicitor about the extras as it would adversely affect my mortgage with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold element on a house I put an offer in a fortnight ago in what should have been a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. Chadderton is the location of the property. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in Chadderton are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Chadderton 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 Chadderton may decide 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 have been pointed in your direction by numerous property agents in Chadderton to choose a property lawyer on your site. Is there a financial advantage for Estate Agents to recommend your services over and above alternative conveyancing organisations?
We don’t make any financial incentive for pointing buyers and sellers our way. We thought it would be too underhand to pay a commission as home movers will think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not getting any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.