My partner and I are planning to acquire a house in Danbury and have instructed a Danbury conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Halifax have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Danbury conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is normal 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor 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 Danbury solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
My lawyer in Danbury has never been on on the Skipton Building Society Approved Panel. Can I still continue with my prefered solicitor even though they are not on the Skipton Building Society approved list?
Your options are as follows:
- Complete the purchase with your existing Danbury lawyers but Skipton Building Society will need to use a lawyer on their list of acceptable firms. This will inevitably rack up the overall conveyancing fees as well as cause frustration.
- Get a new solicitor to act in the purchase, not forgetting to check they are Skipton Building Society approved.
- Persuade your Skipton Building Society based solicitor to seek to join the Skipton Building Society panel
I am close to exchanging contracts on the sale of our property in Danbury and according to the buyers it appears that there is a risk of it being constructed on contaminated land. A high street Danbury conveyancer would know this is not the case. It does beg the question why the buyers instructed an internet conveyancing practice rather than a conveyancing solicitor in Danbury. We have lived in Danbury for many years we know of no issue. Should we contact our local Authority to obtain clarification that there is no issue.
It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing lawyer currently acting for you. What do they say? You must enquire of your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out life insurance to cover that same illness)
4 months have gone by following my purchase conveyancing in Danbury completed. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £150,000 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 property 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.
I am purchasing a new build house in Danbury with a mortgage from Clydesdale. The developers would not reduce the amount so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of additionals instead. The house builders rep advised me not inform my lawyer about this extras as it could impact my mortgage with Clydesdale. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder 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.
My partner and I are purchasing a ground floor flat in Danbury. At the point of instructing our conveyancer, we were told they were on all mainstream bank panels. Our mortgage broker emailed today to say that they don't seem to be on the Santander approved list. Were it to be true, what should we do? Do we simply pick a different conveyancing practitioner that is on their panel or should we pay for separate representation, with Santander selecting their own approved lawyer.
Where you are purchasing a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the buyer’s lawyers to also represent the mortgage company. In order to act for a bank or building society a conveyancing practitioner has to be on that lender's list of approved lawyers. An application has to be made by the conveyancing practitioner to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict conditions which the conveyancing practitioner has to meet. Some mortgage companies now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Accreditation Scheme. Your lawyer should contact Santander and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on Santander's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Danbury solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.