My husband and I are hoping to purchase a home in Heaviley and Offerton and are in fact using a Heaviley and Offerton conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Barclays Direct have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Heaviley and Offerton conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 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 Heaviley and Offerton solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
The Heaviley and Offerton conveyancing solicitors that I recently instructed on my house acquisition in Heaviley and Offerton have without warning shut down. They were on acting for me because I needed a solicitor on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel and my previous Heaviley and Offerton lawyer was not. I paid them money on account. What should be my next steps?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them straight away so that they advise the vendors 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 will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Clydesdale 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 may be able to help.
This question may be naive but I am wet behind the ears as FTB of a ground floor flat in Heaviley and Offerton. Do I collect the keys to the property on the completion date from my conveyancer? If so, I will instruct a local conveyancing solicitor in Heaviley and Offerton?
There is no need to visit the lawyers office on the day of completion. Your solicitors will arrange to send the completion advance to the owner’s conveyancers, and shortly after the monies have arrived, you will be invited to pick up the keys from the property Agents and move into your new home. Usually this occurs between 1 and 3pm.
I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with Kent Reliance. I assume I don't need a Heaviley and Offerton conveyancer on the Kent Reliance panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?
If you have finished paying off your Kent Reliance 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 Kent Reliance mortgage from the register. Kent Reliance, 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 Kent Reliance has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Kent Reliance has instructed the Land Registry to do so
I have decided to exercise my right to buy my property in Heaviley and Offerton off the council. I have a mortgage offer with RBS. Conveyancing is not something I have any knowledge of. Can I proceed without a solicitor easily? I think we can but we keep being told I should have one. Any advice?
It is not advisable to proceed with a house purchase without a solicitor. The council's solicitor are not acting for you. You need a solicitor for a number reasons. One of which is to verify what plans the Council have for repairs and refurbishment for the next five years. Many leaseholders have been stung for contributions of thousands of pounds. In any event, if you are getting a mortgage with RBS, you will need to appoint a solicitor on the RBS conveyancing panel.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up during conveyancing in Heaviley and Offerton?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Heaviley and Offerton. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’
I have been on the look out for a ground for flat up to £235,500 and identified one round the corner in Heaviley and Offerton I like with a park and railway links in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 49 years on the lease. There is not much else in Heaviley and Offerton in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a lease with such few years left?
Should you require a mortgage the shortness of the lease will be problematic. Reduce the price by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you can request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor concerning this matter.
Builders have put forward a conveyancer and I've received an estimate from them. They are nearly £300 cheaper than my local Heaviley and Offerton solicitor. What's the catch?
Housebuilders normally have lists of lawyers who expedite matters and who know the builder's documentation and solicitor. Plenty of developers offer an incentive to choose a preferred lawyer for this reason, any increased fees can be avoided and a builder won't suggest a conveyancing factory and run the risk of having the conveyancing delayed when they demand an exchange within a tight time frame. The argument for not agreeing to use the recommended conveyancing practitioner is that they may be reluctant to fight for your interests for fear of alienating the developer. If you worry that this may be the situation you should keep with your high street Heaviley and Offerton lawyer.