My partner and I are purchasing a newly built apartment in Crystal Palace and my conveyancer is advising me that she is duty bound to the bank to disclose incentives from the builder. The Estate Agents are hassling me to exchange and I have no desire to prolong matters. is my lawyer playing by the book?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancer. A precondition to being on a lender panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook provisions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
The Crystal Palace conveyancing solicitors that I recently instructed on my house acquisition in Crystal Palace have without warning closed. I chose them because I needed a firm on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel and my family Crystal Palace lawyer was not. I paid them £170 in advance. What should be my next steps?
If you have an estate agent involved then inform them immediately so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers should be in a position to help.
Is it correct that all Crystal Palace CQS (Conveyancing Quality Scheme) solicitors are on the Aldermore conveyancing panel?
It is true that some banks and building societies now make use of the accreditation scheme as the kick off point for Panel membership such as HSBC and Santander. The Law Society’s CQS accreditation however gives no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. That being said,the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for solicitor practices wishing to join their approved list of conveyancing solicitors.
When it comes to mortgage companies such as RBS, do Crystal Palace conveyancing practitioners face an annual charge to be on the list of approved solicitors?
We are not aware of any bank fees to register on their panel, although some do charge an administration charge to deal with the processing of the conveyancing panel submission.
I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Crystal Palace. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an on account payment of £175. A couple of days later, the lawyer contacted me to say that they were not on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Leeds Building Society panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
Due to the encouragement of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in Crystal Palace before appointing lawyers. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold element to the house. The surveyor has said that some banks may not grant a loan on such a premises.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Santander has different requirements from Nationwide. Should you wish to call us we can investigate further with the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Crystal Palace. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in Crystal Palace especially if they regularly deal with such properties in Crystal Palace.
My wife and I have hit a brick wall in seeking a lease extension in Crystal Palace. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?
Most certainly. We are happy to put you in touch with a Crystal Palace conveyancing firm who can help.
An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Crystal Palace property is Flat 1 4 Border Crescent in March 2012. the Tribunal decided that the sum payable by the Applicants to the Respondent in respect of the new lease for the subject property should be £11,616.00 (ElevenThousand and Six Hundred and Sixteen Pounds) This case related to 1 flat. The remaining number of years on the lease was 72.04 years.
What makes a Crystal Palace lease defective?
There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Crystal Palace. Most leases are drafted differently and drafting errors can sometimes mean that certain clauses are not included. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:
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Insurance obligations A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.
A defective lease will likely cause issues when trying to sell a property as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. HSBC Bank, Bank of Scotland, and Clydesdale all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is problematic they may refuse to provide security, forcing the buyer to pull out.
There are a number of property lawyers listed on your site but can you recommend a good lawyer to do the purchase of an apartment in Crystal Palace. We are hoping to secure the flat for £240000 with a mortgage from Skipton. We live in Crystal Palace but dont care where they are.
LenderPanel.com is restricted to being a directory service for conveyancing practitioners who want to be listed as being on the approved conveyancing panel for Skipton in certain locations for instance Crystal Palace . Our intention is not to recommend any particular conveyancing practitioner.