My wife and I are looking to acquire a house in Langport and are in fact using a Langport conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. The Mortgage Works have this evening contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Langport lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
If you are buying a property needing a mortgage 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 bank 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 as you are at liberty to use your preferred Langport lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
My wife and I are nearing an exchange on a house in Langport and my mum and dad have transferred the exchange deposit to my conveyancing practitioner. I am now advised that as the deposit has been received from someone other than me my conveyancer needs to disclose this to my mortgage company. Apparently, in also acting for the mortgage company he must inform them that the balance of the purchase price is coming from anyone other than me. I advised the mortgage company concerning my parents' contribution when I applied for the home loan, so is it really necessary for him to raise this?
Your conveyancing practitioner is duty bound to check with the bank to ensure that they understand that the balance of the purchase price is not from your own funds. The solicitor can only notify this to your mortgage company if you permit them to, failing which, your lawyer must cease to continue acting.
It is is a decade since I purchased my house in Langport. Conveyancing solicitors have just been instructed on the sale but I can't track down the title deeds. Will this jeopardise the sale?
You need not be too concerned. First there is a chance that the deeds will be retained by the mortgage company or they may be in the possession of the conveyancers who handled the purchase. Secondly the chances are that the title will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you own the property by your conveyancing lawyers obtaining current official copies of the land registers. The vast majority of conveyancing in Langport relates to registered property but in the unlikely event that your home is unregistered it adds to the complexity but is not insurmountable.
It has been five months following my purchase conveyancing in Langport concluded. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £150,000 when infact I paid £180,000. Why the discrepancy?
The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the asset from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a flat up to £305k and identified one round the corner in Langport I like with a park and railway links in the vicinity, however it's only got 52 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Langport in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a lease with such few years left?
If you need a mortgage that many years will likely be a potential deal breaker. Reduce the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing owner has owned the property for at least 2 years you could request that they commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor regarding this.
Are all Langport property lawyers on every lender conveyancing panel?
You can use our search tool or you can go into your high street lender branch in Langport. the probability is that they will be in a position to recommend some approved conveyancing solicitors in Langport