My flat in Cumbria is up for sale and I have accepted an offer. Does the conveyancing practitioner need to be required to be on the Barclays conveyancing panel in order to deal with repayment of my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Barclays 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 at the moment.
I'm the single recipient of my late mum's estate and I have everything in my name alone, including the my former home in Cumbria. Conveyancing formalities meant that the Land Registry date was in August. I now wish to sell up. I understand that there is a CML 6 month 'rule', which means that my property ownership could be considered the same way as if I'd bought the property in August. Will no one buy the property for half a year?
The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ handbook obliges conveyancers to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." By the strict wording you might be caught by that. Most mortgage companies would take a pragmatic view as this obligation is primarily there to capture subsales or the quick reselling of properties.
We previously chose solicitors with offices in Cumbria on the Bank of Ireland solicitor panel. They are now charging me a further sum for handling the Bank of Ireland mortgage. Is this an additional conveyancing fee set by Bank of Ireland?
Unfortunately, so long as it is in their Terms of Engagement or estimate then yes your lawyer can levy a fee for this. The charge is not dictated by Bank of Ireland but by your Cumbria property lawyer. Numerous firms on the Bank of Ireland panel will quote an ‘acting for lender’ fee and others do not.
I recently had an offer agreed on a house in Cumbria. My financial adviser suggested a lawyer. I paid an upfront payment of £200. Shortly after, the conveyancer called me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Principality 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 Principality 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.
Will my solicitor be asking questions regarding flooding during the conveyancing in Cumbria.
Flooding is a growing risk for lawyers carrying out conveyancing in Cumbria. Some people will purchase a house in Cumbria, completely aware that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical damage, if a property is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, suitable insurance cover, or sell the property. There are steps that can be taken during the course of a house purchase to forewarn the buyer.
Conveyancers are not best placed to impart advice on flood risk, however there are a various searches that may be carried out by the buyer or on a buyer’s behalf which can figure out the risks in Cumbria. The conventional set of property information forms supplied to a buyer’s conveyancer (where the Conveyancing Protocol is adopted) includes a standard inquiry of the seller to discover if the premises has historically flooded. If the premises has been flooded in past and is not notified by the vendor, then a buyer may issue a legal claim for losses as a result of such an misleading response. The buyer’s conveyancers may also commission an enviro search. This should indicate whether there is a recorded flood risk. If so, further inquiries will need to be carried out.
I used Action Conveyancing a few years past for my conveyancing in Cumbria. I now require my file but the law firm has closed. What do I do?
Do contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Cumbria of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously retained, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
How does conveyancing in Cumbria differ for new build properties?
Most buyers of new build premises in Cumbria approach us having been asked by the builder to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the residence is constructed. This is because new home sellers in Cumbria tend to buy the site, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancing solicitors as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are used to new build conveyancing in Cumbria or who has acted in the same development.
My step-mother completed her conveyancing in Cumbria ten years ago. She has got married, widowed and has recently remarried. She wishes to market the property next moths. I think she will just be need to provide a copy of her marriage papers to the property lawyer however she is concerned it will frustrate the conveyancing. Is it worth updating the title information for the property?
The is no need to update the register as long as you have the evidence needed to demonstrate how the change of name resulted.
The buyer’s conveyancing practitioner should review the registered entries and request evidence to establish the change of name for instance marriage documentation.