My partner and I are planning to buy a flat in Gallows Corner and are in fact using a Gallows Corner conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Yorkshire Building Society have this evening contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Gallows Corner conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
If you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the purchaser's lender. 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 property lawyer should contact your bank 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 and you may continue to use your own Gallows Corner solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
We were just about to sign contracts for a freehold house in Gallows Corner. We encountered a problem. Our loan offer with Halifax expires on 8/12/2025 but the vendors are putting forward a completion date of 10/12/2025. Is it possible to prolong the loan offer?
The person best placed to address this question is your lawyer who should assess whether he or she is corresponding with the bank, vendor’s solicitors, estate agents or indeed all three given the circumstances your transaction to date.
It is is a decade since I bought my property in Gallows Corner. Conveyancing lawyers have recently been retained on the sale but I am unable to find my deeds. Is this a problem?
You need not be too concerned. First the deeds may be kept by your lender or they could be in the possession of the solicitor who oversaw the purchase. Secondly in all probability the property will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to prove you are the registered owner by your conveyancing solicitors acquiring current official copies of the land registers. Most conveyancing in Gallows Corner relates to registered property but in the rare situation where your property is unregistered it adds to the complexity but is resolvable.
The Gallows Corner conveyancing lawyers that I appointed last week on my purchase in Gallows Corner have suddenly closed. I chose them because I needed a solicitor on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel and my preferred Gallows Corner lawyer was not. I issued them a cheque for £250 in advance. What are my options?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then let them know straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. 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 Bank of Ireland 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 lawyers should be in a position to help.
A colleague suggested that if I am buying in Gallows Corner I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is sometimes included in the estimate for your Gallows Corner conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of about 40 pages, listing and setting out significant information about Gallows Corner around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime statistics, Local Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information concerning Gallows Corner.
I have todaybeen informed that Stirling Law have been shut down. They carried out my conveyancing in Gallows Corner for a purchase of a leasehold apartment 9 months ago. How can I establish that the property is in my name in the name of the former proprietor?
The quickest way to see if the premises is registered to you, you can make a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Gallows Corner conveyancing specialists.