My partner and I are looking to purchase a house in Heywood and have appointed a Heywood conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Chelsea Building Society have this morning contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Heywood lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is normal 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 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Heywood solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
My fiance and I swapping mortgage lender for our maisonette in Heywood with UBS. We have a son 18 who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the flat is repossessed. I have two questions (1) Is this form unique to the UBS conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we bought 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his entitlement 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 UBS. This is solely used to protect UBS 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 UBS 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.
Completed the sale of my flat in Heywood last April yet the purchaser is whats apping me to moan that his lawyer needs to hear from mylawyer. What are the post completion sale formalities following completion?
After completion of your house sale your lawyer is committed to deliver the transfer documentation and all of the paperwork to the buyer’s solicitors. Where appropriate, your conveyancer must also evidence that the home loan has been repaid to the buyers solicitors. There is unlikely to be post completion tasks just for conveyancing in Heywood.
We wanted to use a property lawyer in Heywood for our home move. Our broker has since advised us that our mortgage company TSB won't deal with them. Why is this not regarded as unduly restrictive?
Before the recession most mortgage companies had a different appetite for risk. Almost all Heywood conveyancing firms would have been on many mortgage company panels. The FSA in 2010 carried out a thematic investigation into mortgage fraud which concluded: mortgage lenders should know the conveyancing solicitors dealt with. Consequently, mortgage companies are increasingly seeing more information from law firms relating to their operations and the individuals who work for them and establishing certain criteria such a completing on a minimum number of conveyancing. Many Heywood conveyancing firms that have been excluded from lender panels have Unblemished track record, no complaints and no claims and didn't just 'dabble' in conveyancing. Heywood is one of the numerous areas where the lawyers we recommend are are authorised to act for TSB.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £235,500 and identified one round the corner in Heywood I like with open areas and transport links in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 61 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Heywood for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a lease with such few years left?
If you need a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be a potential deal breaker. Discount the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for at least 2 years 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 term with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor regarding this matter.
I am buying a house and need a conveyancing solicitor in Heywood who is on the bank solicitor panel. Can you recommend a Heywood or local Heywood solicitor?
Our service is limited to being a directory service for firms who wish to listed as being on the approved conveyancing panel for the mortgage company who do conveyancing in Heywood. We dont recommend any particular conveyancing practice.