My wife and I are hoping to purchase a house in Kemp Town and are in fact using a Kemp Town conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. HSBC Bank have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Kemp Town conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is usual 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 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 solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Kemp Town lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
We see that you have a search directory listing solicitors on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. Do companies pay you a commission if I instruct them for our conveyancing in Kemp Town?
We are a listing service only for law firms wishing to communicate if they are on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel or other lender panels. We do not charge referral fees to any conveyancer that you subsequently appoint for your conveyancing in Kemp Town.
I have been told that property searches are the number one reason for obstruction in Kemp Town conveyancing transactions. Is this right?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) published conclusions of research by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not feature amongst the common causes of delays during the legal transfer of property. Searches are not likely to be the root cause of holding up conveyancing in Kemp Town.
Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my home can not be found. The lawyers who conducted the conveyancing in Kemp Town 5 years ago no longer exist. What do I do?
Nowadays there are duplicates made of almost everything, and your conveyancer should know exactly where to look for all the relevant paperwork so you may buy or sell your property without any difficulty. Where copies can’t be found, your solicitor may be able to put in place insurance or indemnities protecting you against future claims on the premises.
I am buying my first flat in Kemp Town benefiting from help to buy. The builders refused to budge the price so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The property agent suggested that I not inform my conveyancer about the side-deal as it may adversely affect my mortgage with the bank. Should I keep quiet?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.
My conveyancers in Kemp Town have advised me that they can not locate my conveyancing file. To assist with my purchase I took out a mortgage with the bank. Is it case that being on the lender conveyancing panel they need to have retained the file for a prescribed period?
It very much depends from lender to lender but many of the Terms and Conditions of Conveyancing Panel Appointment require the file to be held for a period of 6 years. That being said we have not seen a copy of the mortgage company Conveyancing Panel Terms. It might be worth you contacting the mortgage company directly.