My fiance and I are planning to buy a home in East Molesey and have appointed a East Molesey conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Britannia have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our East Molesey solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
If 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 Quality 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 solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred East Molesey lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
We have very pushy vendors who has insisted on a lock out agreement with a payment 6,000. Are such agreements generally advanced for East Molesey conveyancing transactions?
There are a couple of primary concerns with entering into any lock out agreement (also known as a shut-out contract) is that it can distract from progressing with the conveyancing work, so in the absence of it needing limited or no negotiation then it may turn out to be a cause of frustration and delay. It is not strongly advocated by East Molesey conveyancing solicitors as a result. A further negative is the extent of the remedies available - a jilted purchaser is not likely to be granted an injunction to prevent the vendor selling to another buyer, so the only remedy open via the agreement will be the reimbursement of wasted costs and, in limited situations, the additional payment of damages.
We're in East Molesey, First time buyers purchasing with a mortgage (lender is Nationwide , and our lawyer is on the Nationwide conveyancing panel). How long should the conveyancing process take?
The fact that your lawyer is on the Nationwide conveyancing panel is a help. It would almost certainly delay matters if they were not. However, no lawyer should guarantee a timeframe for your conveyancing, due to third parties outside of your control such as delays caused by lenders,conveyancing search providers or by the other side’s solicitors. The time taken is often determined by the number of parties in a chain.
I purchased a 4 bedroom Victorian property in East Molesey. Conveyancing practitioner represented me and The Mortgage Works. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw two entries: the first freehold, the second leasehold with the matching property. Is it worth asking The Mortgage Works to clarify?
You should assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in East Molesey and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they mortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also question the situation with your conveyancing lawyer who completed the work.
I am purchasing my first flat in East Molesey with a mortgage from Virgin Money. The builders would not budge the amount so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The property agent advised me not inform my conveyancer about this deal as it may put at risk my loan 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.
We're novice buyers - had an offer accepted, yet the property agent told us that the owners will only issue a contract if we appoint the agent's preferred solicitors as they want a ‘quick sale’. My instinct tells me that we should use a local solicitor who is accustomed to conveyancing in East Molesey
It is highly unlikely the owners are driving this. Should the owner want ‘a quick sale', turning down a motivated buyer is counter productive. Avoid the agents and go straight to the owners and make the point that (a)you are keen to buy (b)you are ready to go, with finances arranged © you are chain free (d) you wish to move quickly (e)however you are going to use your own,trusted East Molesey conveyancing solicitors - not the ones that will give the negotiator at the agency a introducer fee or hit his conveyancing thresholds demanded by corporate headquarters.