As a novice what is the most important advice you can give me regarding purchase conveyancing in Esher?
You may not hear this from too many lawyers but conveyancing in Esher and elsewhere in England and Wales is often a confrontational experience. In other words, when it comes to conveyancing there exists plenty of room for conflict between you and other parties involved in the ownership transfer. For example, the seller, property agent and sometimes your bank. Appointing a solicitor for your conveyancing in Esher should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONE party in the transaction whose interest is to protect your best interests and to keep you safe.
We are witnessing a worrying creep of a "blame" culture- someone must be at fault for the process being so protracted. We recommend that you must always trust your solicitor ahead of the other parties in the conveyancing process.
We wish to acquire a 1 bedroom flat in Esher with a loan from Britannia.We have a Esher conveyancing practitioner but Britannia says she’s not on their "panel". We have to appoint a Britannia panel lawyer or keep our preferred solicitor and fork out for one of their panel ones to act for them. We feel as though this is unjust; is there anything we can do?
No, not really. The mortgage issued to you is subject to its various provisions, a common one being that conveyancers must be on the Britannia conveyancing panel. in the past, most mortgage companies had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could find one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. A further alternative is for your lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for Britannia
My partner and I are in the process of looking at houses in Esher and I am now considering a potential offer. Is it too early to have a solicitor in place? I intend to finance via a home loan with Santander.
You should start requesting conveyancing estimates from solicitors ASAP. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and forward their contact information on to the selling agent. As you are obtaining a mortgage with Santander, ask your prospective lawyers if they are on the Santander conveyancing panel otherwise they can't do the mortgage legal work.
I currently have a mortgage with Lloyds for my property in Esher. Conveyancing was finalised 12 months ago. In the event that I decide to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform Lloyds?
You must advise Lloyds in advance of letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Lloyds’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Lloyds directly. You need not do this via a Lloyds conveyancing panel firm.
I recently had an offer accepted on a house in Esher. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their solicitor. I paid an advanced payment of £175. A few days later, the conveyancer called me to say that they were not on the TSB 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 TSB 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.
I'm purchasing my first flat in Esher with the aid of help to buy. The developers would not reduce the amount so I negotiated 6k of fixtures and fittings instead. The sale representative suggested that I not inform my conveyancer about this side-deal as it could impact my mortgage with Birmingham Midshires. Is this normal?.
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.
In what way does the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 affect my business offices in Esher and how can you help?
The particular law that you refer to affords protection to business leaseholders, granting the right to make a request to court for a new lease and continue in occupation at the end of the lease term. There are certain specified grounds where a landlord can refrain from granting a lease renewal and the rules are complicated. Fees are different for commercial conveyancing. Esher is one of our numerous areas of the UK in which our lawyers have offices
Am I best advised to instruct a Esher conveyancing solicitor who is local to the property I am purchasing? We have a good friend who can conduct the conveyancing however her office is approximately 350kilometers drive away.
The benefit of a local Esher conveyancing firm is that you can attend the office to sign documents, deliver your ID and pester them where appropriate. Having local Esher know how is a benefit. That being said it's more important to get someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If other friends have used your friend and the majority were happy that should trump using an unknown Esher conveyancing solicitor just because they are local.