My husband and I are acquiring a brand new apartment in Hale and my lawyer is telling me that she has to the mortgage company to reveal incentives from the seller. I am nearing the developer’s deadline to exchange and I don't want to delay deal. is my lawyer playing by the book?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancing practitioner. A precondition to being on a lender panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook specifications. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with Santander. I assume I don't need a Hale solicitor on the Santander panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.
If you have finished paying off your Santander 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 Santander mortgage from the register. Santander, 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 Santander has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Santander has instructed the Land Registry to do so
Planning on purchasing a maisonette in Hale. I have received an online quote from a licenced conveyancer, which states: "There will be no charge for dealing with the Building Society if you are obtaining a mortgage". I take this to mean that there will be no additional fee if the solicitor is on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel. I wanted to make sure it means there will be no additional fees for dealing with the mortgage.
They are simply saying that the cost for acting for the lender is included in the fee being quoted. It is worth you checking that the Hale conveyancer is on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel.
My offer was accepted on an apartment in Hale on 2/1/2025, valuation was booked 4 days after, all came back fine. Conveyancer instructed, so all that was missing was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to Nottingham and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the Nottingham conveyancing panel. Can the lender hold off the offer?
Mortgage companies tend not to not issue an offer until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Nottingham to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Nottingham conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
How does conveyancing in Hale differ for new build properties?
Most buyers of new build or newly converted property in Hale approach us having been asked by the developer to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the property is completed. This is because developers in Hale tend to acquire the land, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancing solicitors as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are used to new build conveyancing in Hale or who has acted in the same development.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £235,500 and found one close by in Hale I like with a park and railway links in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 49 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Hale in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake buying a lease with such few years left?
If you require a mortgage that many years will likely be problematic. Reduce the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the property for at least twenty four months you may ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this.
Should I be wary by estate agents that I am dealing with are recommending an online conveyancing firm rather than a High Street Hale conveyancing firm?
As with many service providers, often suggestions from connections can be extremely useful or valuable. Nevertheless there are lots of players in a conveyancing transaction; estate agents, mortgage brokers and lenders may recommend conveyancers to use. On occasion these lawyers might be known to one of the organisations as experts in their field, but occasionally there behind the scenes commercial relationship behind the recommendation. You are free to choose your own conveyancer. However, bear in mind that the majority of banks specify a panel list of solicitors you must use for the lender related work in your home move.
My father-in-law mentioned that before choosing a conveyancing lawyer they must be approved by your bank. I am novice purchaser but I have an AIP from Birmingham Midhshires and I already have a local conveyancing lawyer in Hale lined up. Can Halifax require an approved conveyancer to be instructed? Does a list of approved conveyancers even exist so I can pick a conveyancing solicitor in Hale?
You need to instruct a solicitor that is on the Halifax panel. Simply ring your preferred Hale conveyancing solicitor to check if they are on the Halifax panel. If they are not on the panel you have a couple of alternatives available to you here:
- Proceed with your chosen Hale conveyancing practitioner but Halifax will undoubtedly use a conveyancing practitioner from their approved panel. The net result is additional cost and potential interruption.
- Appoint a new property lawyer to act in the purchase, ensuring that they are on the Halifax conveyancing panel.
- Convince your lawyer to do everything within their powers to join the Halifax panel of solicitors.