My husband and I are looking to buy a home in Cottingham and have appointed a Cottingham conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Santander have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Cottingham conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for 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 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 bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Cottingham lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
I purchased a freehold residence in Cottingham but still invoiced for rent, why is this and what is this?
It is rare for properties in Cottingham and has limited impact for conveyancing in Cottingham but some freehold properties in England (particularly common in North West England) pay an annual sum known as a Chief Rent or a Rentcharge to a third party who has no other legal interest in the land.
Rentcharge payments are usually between £2.00 and £5.00 per year. Rentcharges date back many centuries, but the Rent Charge Act 1977 barred the establishment of fresh rentcharges from 1977 onwards.
Old rentcharges can now be redeemed by making a one off payment under the Act. Any rentcharges that are still in existence in 2037 is to be extinguished.
Various online forums that I have come across warn that are a common cause of hinderance in Cottingham conveyancing transactions. Is there any truth in this?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) released conclusions of research by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not figure amongst the top 10 causes of hindrances during the legal transfer of property. Local searches are not likely to be the root cause of slowing down conveyancing in Cottingham.
4 months have gone by since my purchase conveyancing in Cottingham took place. 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 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.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a flat up to £195,000 and identified one near me in Cottingham I like with a park and transport links in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 61 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Cottingham for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a lease with such few years left?
Should you need a mortgage that many years will be a potential deal breaker. Discount the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the premises for at least 2 years you can request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer about this.
We today found out that one of the partners of the firm handling the purchase conveyancing in Cottingham is an uncle of the vendor. Is this acceptable?
Provided there is no conflict of interest this should be fine. Where you are obtaining mortgage finance then the bank may have a say as many lenders have specific instructions concerning this. For example for Royal Bank of Scotland as of 15/9/2026, the requirements read as follows :