My wife and I are hoping to buy a property in Ickenham and have appointed a Ickenham conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Britannia have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Ickenham conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the mortgage company. 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 bank and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Ickenham solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
My fiance and I intend to remortgage our penthouse in Ickenham with Co-operative. We have a son approaching twenty who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who lives in the flat. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the apartment is repossessed. I have two concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Co-operative conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we purchased 3 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Co-operative conveyancing panel solicitor is doing the right thing 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 Co-operative. This is solely used to protect Co-operative 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 Co-operative 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.
A relative advised me that where I am purchasing in Ickenham I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is usually included in the estimate for your Ickenham conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing important information about Ickenham around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Ickenham Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Local Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about Ickenham.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I put an offer in a fortnight ago in what should have been a straight forward, chain free conveyancing. Ickenham is the location of the property. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in Ickenham are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Ickenham you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Ickenham may determine that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold residence.
What does commercial conveyancing in Ickenham cover?
Commercial conveyancing in Ickenham covers a broad array of services, provided by regulated solicitors, relating to business premises. By way of example, this area of conveyancing can cover the sale or purchase of freehold business premises or, more usually, the transfer of existing leases or the drafting of new leasing arrangements. Commercial conveyancing solicitors can also offer advice on the sale of business assets, commercial loans and the termination of tenancies.
My brother mentioned that before choosing a conveyancing lawyer they must be approved by your lender. This is my first home move but I have an AIP via Birmingham Midhshires and I already have a bricks and morter conveyancing lawyer in Ickenham at the ready. Can Birmingham Midhshires require an approved solicitor to be instructed? Does a directory of panel conveyancers even exist for my conveyancing in Ickenham?
You need to choose a solicitor that is on the Birmingham Midhshires panel. The first thing to do is call your chosen Ickenham conveyancing solicitor to check if they are on the Birmingham Midhshires panel. If they are not on the panel you have a couple of options available to you here:
- Proceed with your chosen Ickenham lawyer but Birmingham Midhshires will need to instruct a conveyancing practitioner on their conveyancing panel. The net result is additional charges together with probable interruption.
- Get a fresh lawyer to act in the purchase, ensuring that they are on the Birmingham Midhshires conveyancing panel.
- Convince your lawyer to pull out all the stops to join the Birmingham Midhshires panel of solicitors.