I am nearing exchange of contracts for my maisonette in Erith and the estate agent has just text me to warn that the buyers are changing their property lawyer. I am told that this is due to the fact that the lender will only engage with solicitors on their approved list. Why would a big named lender only engage with certain law firms rather the firm that they want to appoint for their conveyancing in Erith ?
Lenders have always had panels of law firms they are content to work with, but in the past few years big names such as Nationwide, have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for over 25 years.
Lenders point to the increase in fraud as the reason for the reduction – criteria have been tightened as a smaller panel is easier to monitor. No lender will say how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society claims that it is being contacted daily by practices that have been removed from panels. Plenty of firms are unaware that they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. The purchasers are not going to have any impact on this.
Can I use your services to find a Conveyancing solicitor in Erith even if I’m not buying or disposing of a house, for example where I want to buy an office in Erith with a loan from Platform Home Loans Ltd?
Our search tool is primarily there to help choose residential conveyancing solicitors in Erith but we have set out at the end of this page a few Erith commercial conveyancing firms. You will need to make contact with the firm directly to check if they can also act for Platform Home Loans Ltd
The Erith conveyancing firm that just started acting on my purchase in Erith have suddenly shut down. I only went with them because I needed a firm on the TSB conveyancing panel and my previous Erith lawyer was not. I wrote them a cheque for £250 in advance. What should be my next steps?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them immediately so that they can let the sellers know 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 TSB 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 assist.
I am close to exchanging contracts on the sale of our property in Erith and the buyers lawyers are claiming that there is a possibility that the property was constructed on contaminated land. A local lawyer would know that there is no such problem. For the life of me I don't know why the purchasers are using a national conveyancing practice rather than a conveyancing solicitor in Erith. Having lived in Erith for 5 years we know that this is a non issue. Do we get in touch with our local Authority to seek clarification need.
It would appear that you have a conveyancing lawyer already. What do they say? You need to check with 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 ailment)
Due to sign contracts shortly on a ground floor flat in Erith. Conveyancing solicitors have said that they will have a report out to me on Monday. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?
The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Erith should include some of the following:
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Does the lease prevent you from letting out the flat, or working from home Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the (you), superior lessor, landlord Information concerning the obligations as set out in the lease to pay service charges - with regard to both the building, and the wider rights a leaseholder enjoys Who has the liability to repair and maintain the block. It is important that you know who is responsible the repair and maintenance of all parts of the block and estate
I am the leaseholder of a garden flat in Erith. In the absence of agreement between myself and the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the amount due for the purchase of the freehold?
Most certainly. We are happy to put you in touch with a Erith conveyancing firm who can help.
An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Erith residence is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case affected 13 flats. The unexpired lease term was 76 years.
My partner and I are buying a 2 bedroom flat in Erith. When we first instructed lawyer, we were told they were on all mainstream mortgage company panels. Our financial adviser emailed just now to say that they don't appear to be on the Nationwide approved list. Were it to be true, what should we do? Do we just pick a different conveyancing practitioner that is on their panel or should we pay for dual representation, with Nationwide selecting their own approved conveyancer.
When acquiring a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is standard for the purchaser’s solicitors to also represent the mortgage company. In order to act for a bank or building society a property lawyer has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. 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 criteria which the conveyancing practitioner has to satisfy. Some mortgage companies now require their panel firms to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should call Nationwide to discover 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 Nationwide's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Erith lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.