I am selling my apartment in Hessle and the estate agent has just e-mailed to warn that the buyers are appointing a new property lawyer. The excuse is that the bank will only work with solicitors on their conveyancing panel. Why would a major mortgage company only work with certain law firms rather the firm that they want to appoint to handle their conveyancing in Hessle ?
Lenders have always had an approved set of law firms that can represent them, but in the past few years big names such as Nationwide, have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have acted for them for many years.
Banks point to the increase in fraud by way of justification for the cull – criteria have been stiffened as a smaller panel is easier to oversee. Banks tend not to reveal how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society claims that it is being contacted daily by practices that have been removed from panels. Plenty of firms do not even realise they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. Your purchasers are not going to have any sway in the decision.
My partner and I are refinancing our apartment in Hessle with Kent Reliance. We have a son approaching twenty who lives with us. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we purchased 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this extinguish his rights to inherit the property?
On the face of it your lawyer has done nothing wrong as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to Kent Reliance. This is solely used to protect Kent Reliance if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave. It does not impact your son’s right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of Kent Reliance had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.
We wanted to use a conveyancing solicitor in Hessle for our house move. Our broker has since advised us that our mortgage company Santander won't deal with them. Why is this not regarded as unduly restrictive?
A bank may direct that an approved solicitor act for it. Borrowers are liable to meet the charges for this. Please make use of our directory service to locate a solicitor to conduct conveyancing in Hessle on the Santander member panel.
I am assisting my mother sell her house in Hessle. Will the conveyancing solicitor order an EPC or it is for me to coordinate?
After the abolition of Home Packs, energy assessments remained a required component of selling a property. An energy assessment should be commissioned prior to the property being marketed. It is not as aspect of the sale process that solicitors ordinarily arrange. If you are using a Hessle conveyancing lawyer they may help arrange energy assessments due to their relationships with reputable local energy assessors
Is it the case that all Hessle CQS (Conveyancing Quality Scheme) solicitors are on the Principality conveyancing list of approved firms?
A selection of banks and building societies now use CQS as the starting point for Panel approval such as HSBC and Santander. The Law Society’s CQS membership however gives no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. That being said,the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for solicitor practices wishing to remain on their approved list of firms.
I'm spending time viewing houses in Hessle and I am now considering a potential offer. Should I already have a conveyancing practitioner appointed at this stage? I will be getting a mortgage with RBS.
It would be prudent to start your search sooner rather than later. Once you decide who you want to use and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and forward their details on to the selling agent. As you are taking out a mortgage with RBS, ask your prospective lawyers if they are on the RBS conveyancing panel otherwise they can't do the mortgage legal work.
I have been recommended by three or four local property agents in Hessle to choose a conveyancer using your seach tool. Is there a financial upside for Estate Agents to offer your services ahead of alternative conveyancing organisations?
We refuse to make any financial incentive for pointing buyers and sellers in our direction. We found it would be just too difficult a fee because members of the public would think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not getting any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.
I own a leasehold flat in Hessle. Conveyancing was completed in 2010. I have heard that I mustn’t allow the lease length get too low. Is this right?
Hessle residential long term leases are for a prescribed period - often ninety nine years when they are first granted. However many flats in Hessle were built or converted 20 or more years ago and so these leases now have fewer than 80 years remaining. That may sound like a long time however Banks, Building Societies and other mortgage institutions tend to require leases to have at least 75 years unexpired to be mortgageable. Accordingly when you come to sell the property you will need to extend the term of your lease if you are approaching eighty years. To maximise your property value you should be considering whether or not to extend your lease long before you come to sell it. There are also strong financial reasons to taking action before the lease reaches even eighty years as when the lease falls below 80 years the amount to be paid to extend starts to get a lot more expensive.