My conveyancer has uncovered a a legal deficiency with the lease for the property we are purchasing in Hotwells. The seller’s lawyers have suggested defective title insurance as a workaround. We are content with insurance and will pay for it. Our conveyancing practitioner says that he must be satisfied that the lender is happy with this solution. Who is the client here, us or the bank?
The short answer to your last question is that, notwithstanding the potential for a conflict of interest, you and the lender are the client. Your lawyer must comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook specifications. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions require your lawyer to disclose issues such as defects with the lease so that the mortgage company can be afforded the opportunity to check with their valuer as to the extent that the value of the property is affected. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your property lawyer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.
Can you explain why leasehold purchase conveyancing in Hotwells is more expensive?
Hotwells leasehold conveyancing transactions usually involve additional investigations than freeholds including investigating the Lease, liaising with the Landlord such as serving applicable notices on the Landlord or managing agent, obtaining up-to-date service charge and management information, obtaining Landlord’s consents and reviewing management accounts and formation documents.
We wanted to use a property lawyer in Hotwells for our house move. Our broker informed us that our mortgage company Bank of Scotland won't deal with them. Surely this is unfair competition?
A lender will direct that an approved conveyancer act for it. Borrowers are liable to bear the cost of this. Try using our search facility to locate a solicitor to carry conveyancing in Hotwells on the Bank of Scotland approved list of solicitors.
I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Hotwells. My financial adviser suggested a lawyer. I paid an upfront payment of £200. A few days later, the solicitor contacted me to say that they were not on the Barclays 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 Barclays 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 was told two weeks ago that my mortgage has been agreed to by UBS. Is it usual for UBS to only issue the offer once my solicitor in Hotwells is approved on their conveyancing panel? UBS have asked my solicitor to see a copy of their PI Insurance.
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 UBS to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the UBS conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
Our offer on a detached house in Hotwells has been accepted, the vendors do however have a dependent purchase. The vendors have offered on somewhere, however it’s not yet agreed to, and have viewings of other apartments booked. I have selected a local conveyancing solicitor in Hotwells. What should be my next step? When do I get the mortgage application with Aldermore going?
It is understandable to have apprehensions where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket too early (home loan application is approx £1k, then survey, Hotwells conveyancing search costs, etc). The first course of action is to ensure that your conveyancing practitioner is on the Aldermore approved list. As to the subsequent phase this very much depends on the uniqueness of your transaction, desire for the property and on the state of the market. During a rising market many buyers will apply for the mortgage with Aldermore and arrange for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they request their conveyancing practitioner to press on with searches.
Me and my brother have a renovated Georgian property in Hotwells. Conveyancing practitioner acted for me and Nationwide Building Society. I did a free Land Registry search last week and there are two entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold under the matching property. I'd like to know for sure, how can I find out??
You need to assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Hotwells and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also check the situation with your conveyancing lawyer who completed the work.
Do online conveyancing organisations undertake everything a local Hotwells solicitor does or do I still need to use a solicitor for the final stages for my conveyancing in Hotwells?
Where you choose an online conveyancer they should cover all the work your Hotwells solicitor would cover.