Why do I have to pay up front for conveyancing in Eccleston and St Helens?
Where you are retaining lawyers for conveyancing in Eccleston and St Helens your lawyer will request that you to provide them with monies to cover the search fees. This will be the total of the cost of the conveyancing searches. When the deposit is payable against the purchase price then this will be required shortly ahead of contracts are exchanged. Any further balance that is due will be payable shortly before completion.
The Eccleston and St Helens conveyancing lawyers that I recently instructed on my purchase in Eccleston and St Helens have without warning shut down. They were on acting for me because I had to have a lawyer on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel and my preferred Eccleston and St Helens lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take £195 for searches. What are my options?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation 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 should appoint new lawyers that are on the Clydesdale 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 solicitors should be in a position to help.
I'm the sole beneficiary of my late mum's will and I have everything in my name now, including the my former home in Eccleston and St Helens. The Eccleston and St Helens property was put into my name in January. I now wish to sell up. I understand that there is a Mortgage Lenders 6 month 'rule', meaning my property ownership could be treated the same way as if I'd bought the property in January. Is the property unsalable for six months?
The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ handbook mandates 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 may be impacted by that. Some mortgage companies would take a practical view as this obligation is primarily there to pick up on the purchase and immediately sell or the flipping of property.
I have paid off my mortgage with Clydesdale. I assume I don't need a Eccleston and St Helens property lawyer on the Clydesdale panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?
If you have finished paying off your Clydesdale mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Clydesdale mortgage from the register. Clydesdale, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where Clydesdale has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Clydesdale has instructed the Land Registry to do so
My offer was accepted on a house in Eccleston and St Helens on 13/1/2025, valuation was booked 2 days later, all came back fine. Solicitor instructed, so all that was missing was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to Bank of Ireland and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel. Can the lender hold off the offer?
A lender would not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Bank of Ireland to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
My wife and I purchased a renovated Edwardian property in Eccleston and St Helens. Conveyancing practitioner acted for me and Aldermore. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and I saw two entries: the first freehold, another for leasehold under the exact same property. I'd like to know for sure, how can I find out??
You need to review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Eccleston and St Helens and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also question the position with the conveyancing lawyer who completed the work.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a property I have offered on two weeks back in what was supposed to be a quick, chain free conveyancing. Eccleston and St Helens is the location of the property. Is there any advice you can give?
Flying freeholds in Eccleston and St Helens are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Eccleston and St Helens you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds thoroughly. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Eccleston and St Helens may decide that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold residence.
I was advised by a few property agents in Eccleston and St Helens to choose a conveyancer using your seach tool. What’s the financial incentive for Estate Agents to promote your lawyers ahead of a competitor’s?
We don’t give any commission for pointing buyers and sellers in our direction. We found it would be just too difficult to pay a commission because home movers will think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I getting any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.