My husband and I are hoping to acquire a flat in London and have instructed a London conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Birmingham Midshires have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our London 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 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 bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own London solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
My fiance and I swapping mortgage lender for our maisonette in London with UBS. We have a son 18 who lives with us. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults 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 forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this form unique to the UBS conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 5 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 UBS 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 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.
I had intended to instruct a property lawyer in London for our home move. Our broker informed us that our mortgage lenders Alliance & Leicester won't deal with them. Surely this is unfair competition?
Before the recession most lenders had an appetite for risk which was higher than today. Almost all London conveyancing firms would have been on many bank panels. The financial services regulator in 2010 completed a thematic investigation into mortgage fraud which concluded: know the conveyancing solicitors dealt with. Consequently, lenders have regularly sought more information from law firms about their operations and their employees and set certain criteria such a completing on a minimum volume of conveyancing. Many London conveyancing firms that have been excluded from lender panels have a 100% healthy track record, no complaints and no claims and didn't just 'dabble' in conveyancing. London is one of the thousands of locations where the conveyancers we list are on the panel for Alliance & Leicester .
We previously chose conveyancers with offices in London on the Coventry BS solicitor approved list. They have just billed me an additional fee for handling the Coventry BS mortgage. Is this a supplemental conveyancing fee set by Coventry BS?
Unfortunately, as long as it is in their Terms and Conditions or Quote then yes your solicitor may charge a fee for this. The charge is not set by Coventry BS but by your London solicitor. Plenty of firms on the Coventry BS panel will levy an ‘acting for lender’ fee but many firms include it on their overall fee.
I had a mortgage agreed in principle with Skipton. London conveyancing solicitors have been instructed. How long does it take for Skipton to issue the offer to the solicitor?
Some lenders take longer than others. Have Skipton done the survey? Have you informed Skipton as to your lawyers' details and checked that your lawyers are on the Skipton conveyancing panel? It is not unusual for a mortgage offer to take a month to come through.
I have a mortgage with RBS for my property in London. Conveyancing was finalised 12 months ago. In the event that I decide to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform RBS?
You must advise RBS in advance of renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of RBS’s mortgage conditions. It may be that RBS will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact RBS directly. You need not do this via a RBS conveyancing panel lawyer.
My brother has recommend that I instruct his lawyers for conveyancing in London. Should I find my own conveyancer?
There are no two ways about it it’s preferable to find a conveyancing solicitor is to have referrals from friends or family who have actually used the conveyancer that you are considering.
A licensed conveyancer handled my conveyancing in London half a dozen years past and was holding my title documents but has since been shut down – how do I get hold of them?
Title deeds, as such, are no longer appropriate for the majority of homes in London are recorded digitally at Land Registry. Should you need to prove ownership or are selling or re-mortgaging your conveyancing practitioner can obtain up to date copies of the register from the Land Registry in any case.
If you feel there may be other documents or you have any other queries please e-mail your request with details of the transaction and documents you need to filerequest@clc-uk.org. The CLC will let you know what information they have and any additional information they may need before they are in a position to identify and send the documents to you. Following an intervention it may take some time for the CLC to access archived files and documents, but your request will be actioned with reasonable haste.