My husband and I are looking to acquire a house in Grangetown and are in fact using a Grangetown conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Santander have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Grangetown lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is usual 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 lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Grangetown solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
My flat in Grangetown is up for sale and I have a purchaser. Does my solicitor have to be required to be on the Barclays conveyancing panel in order to deal with repayment of my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Barclays conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their requirements fairly frequently in recent years.
I recently had an offer accepted on a house in Grangetown. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an on account payment of £225. Not long after, the property lawyer 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've digested plenty of mortgage guides, I note that it is considered advisable to get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local Grangetown solicitor - who is on the TSB conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. is that correct?
TSB will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually TSB will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your conveyancing practitioner will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Grangetown postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with TSB, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Grangetown.
Aldermore have agreed my home loan in principle, my offer on a apartment in Grangetown has been accepted, what are the next steps?
The estate agent will need to be informed of your solicitor's details (make sure the solicitors are on the bank’s panel). Telephone Aldermore or your broker and finish off any appropriate documentation. Aldermore will instruct a valuer who will get in contact with the selling agent or owners to schedule an appointment. Once carried out (assuming no problems) it takes approximately a fortnight for the mortgage offer to be issued. Aldermore will issue the offer to you and your solicitors. The transaction will then take it’s course according the nature and complexity of the conveyancing in Grangetown.
Due to the input of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in Grangetown in advance of instructing conveyancers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold element to the house. My surveyor has said that some mortgage companies tend not give a mortgage on this type of property.
It varies from the lender to lender. Lloyds has different requirements for example to Birmingham Midshires. Should you wish to telephone us we can investigate further via the relevant mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Grangetown. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.
Is it possible to swap firm as I need to instruct a firm on the Nottingham Building Society conveyancing panel. I hired a local conveyancing solicitor in Grangetown round the corner but he is not approved by Nottingham Building Society
It would be our pleasure to assist you select a conveyancing solicitor in Grangetown on the Nottingham Building Society panel. Please note that the conveyancers that we work with do not pay us fee if you instruct them and are registered with the SRA who regulate all conveyancing solicitors in Grangetown. In making use of the find a conveyancing solicitor tool on this site, you can compare and instruct different solicitors and conveyancers both nationally and in Grangetown.
Why do Grangetown conveyancing fees are more expensive for leasehold and freehold properties?
When purchasing a leasehold property there is more work involved purely due to the fact that usually there are further parties involved in the form of the freeholder and/or Management Agents. As part of a lawyers enquiries they will check that all ground rent and service charges are paid up to date amongst other general leasehold matters. For this reason, the Sellers lawyers usually have to refer to the freeholder or Managing Agent for their replies to our questions. This may be time consuming and beyond the lawyers control