My wife and I are purchasing a 2 bedroom apartment in Luton with a mortgage. We like our Luton conveyancer, however the bank says he's not on their "panel". We have to appoint one of the lender panel conveyancing practices or keep our Luton solicitor as well as pay for one of their panel lawyers to act for them. We consider that this is inequitable; are we not able to require that the bank use our Luton solicitor ?
Unfortunately,no. The mortgage offered to you is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the bank’s conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. A further alternative is for your Luton conveyancing solicitor to apply to be on the conveyancing panel.
Our grandson is about to exchange on a house that has just been built in Luton with a mortgage from Virgin Money. His conveyancer has said that there is a delay in completing the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. What is this document - I have never come across this before?
The document is intended to provide information to the main parties engaged in the purchase. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the surveyor when asked. The developer will be required to start the process by downloading the form and completing it. The form will therefore need to be available for the valuer at the time of his or her site visit. The form should be sent to the Virgin Money conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.
My aunt passed away last year and as sole heir and executor I was left the house in Luton. The house had a relatively small loan left on it of around £4500. I want to transfer the title deeds into my name whilst I re-mortgage to Clydesdale, pay off the mortgage. Is this allowed?
If you plan to refinance then Clydesdale will require that you use a conveyancer on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your Clydesdale conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the Clydesdale mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.
My wife and I are purchasing a property in Luton. It might be a silly question but how we can trust a solicitor? On completion day we will need to send money into their account. What protection do we have from them run away with our money?
Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.
This question may be naive but I am unseasoned as a first time purchaser of a two bedroom flat in Luton. Do I receive the keys to the property on completion from my conveyancer? If this is the case, I will appoint a local conveyancing solicitor in Luton?
There is no need to visit the lawyers office on the day of completion. Your solicitors will transfer the completion advance to the seller's lawyers, and once they have received this, you should be able to receive the keys from the selling Agents and move into your new home. This tends to happen early afternoon.
After much negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in Luton. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an advanced payment of £225. A couple of days later, the property lawyer contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Nationwide 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 Nationwide 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.
Have purchased a a semi-detached house in Luton , how long should it take for the Land Registry to register the transfer to my name? My Luton conveyancing solicitor works at snail pace, so I want to be certain the registration is dealt with.
As far as conveyancing in Luton is concerned, registration is no faster or slower than the rest of the country. As opposed to being determined by geographic area, timeframes can adjust subject to the party submitting the application, whether it is in order and whether the Land registry communicate with any other persons or bodies. Currently roughly 80% of submission are fully dealt with within 12 days but occasionally there can be protracted delays. Historically registration is effected after the new owner is living at the premises thus an expedited registration is not usually an essential issue but where it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your lawyers can communicate with the Registry to express the reasoning for the application to be prioritised.
I work for a long established estate agent office in Luton where we have experienced a few leasehold sales derailed due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Luton conveyancing firms. Could you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?
Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.
An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the buyer.
Luton Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries Prior to buying
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The best form of lease arrangement is a share of the freehold. In this scenario the lessees benefit from control and even though a managing agent is usually employed if the building is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent employed by the leaseholders. Please note if it is fewer than eighty years it will impact the marketability of the property. Check with your bank that they are happy with residual term of the lease. A short lease means that you will almost definitely have to extend the lease at some point and you need to have some idea of how much this would cost. Remember, in most cases you would be be obliged to have been the owner of the residence for 24 months in order to be entitled to extend the lease.