My wife and I are looking to acquire a property in Longford and have appointed a Longford conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Nottingham Building Society have this evening contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Longford lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent 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 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Longford lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
Can you clarify what the consequences are if my lawyer’s firm is expelled from the Bank of Ireland Conveyancing panel ahead of completing my conveyancing in Longford?
First, this is very unlikely to happen. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have to instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by a regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit for a fee.
If you had a top tip for selecting a conveyancing solicitor in Longford what would it be?
We would encourage you not to base your choice on the cheapest Longford conveyancing quote. You really do get what you pay for when it comes to property lawyers. A cheap quote may mean that the conveyancing solicitor is handling a lot of jobs at one time and you won’t get the quality of service and the attention that you need. It is, however, wise to use a conveyancer who has a fixed fee on a no sale, no fee basis. This way, you know exactly what you’ll have to pay in ahead of the deal.
I have paid off my mortgage with Nationwide. I assume I don't need a Longford conveyancing practitioner on the Nationwide panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.
If you have finished paying off your Nationwide mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Nationwide mortgage from the register. Nationwide, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where Nationwide has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Nationwide has instructed the Land Registry to do so
I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Longford. My mortgage broker recommended their conveyancers. I paid an upfront payment of £225. Not long after, the solicitor called me to say that they were not on the UBS 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 UBS 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.
We are buying a house and the solicitor has mentioned Chancel Repair to which the property could be obligated to contribute to given it’s proximity to the area of such a church. He has mentioned insurance. Is this strictly warranted for conveyancing in Longford
Unless a prior acquisition of the premises took place post 12 October 2013 you can take it that conveyancing practitioners carrying out conveyancing in Longford to remain encouraging a chancel search and or chancel repair liability insurance.
I have recentlybeen informed that Stirling Law have closed. They carried out my conveyancing in Longford for a purchase of a freehold house 12 months ago. How can I establish that my home is registered correctly in the name of the former proprietor?
The easiest way to check if the premises is registered to you, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Longford conveyancing specialists.
What does commercial conveyancing in Longford cover?
Longford conveyancing for business premises covers a wide range of advice, provided by regulated solicitors, relating to business property. For instance, this area of conveyancing can cover the sale or purchase of freehold business premises or, more usually, the transfer of existing business tenancies or the drafting of new leasing arrangements. Commercial conveyancing solicitors can also offer advice on the sale of business assets, commercial mortgages and the termination of tenancies.