My husband and I are planning to acquire a house in Lyddington and are in fact using a Lyddington conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Platform Home Loans Ltd have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Lyddington lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the mortgage company. 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 lender 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 bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Lyddington solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
I am purchasing a property for cash in Lyddington. I have been living for the last 20 years in Lyddington. Conveyancing searches are exorbitant. As I have knowledge of the area and road intimately should I not bother getting the solicitor to do all the conveyancing searches?
Provided that you do not need a home loan, then almost all of the Lyddington conveyancing searches are non-obligatory. Your solicitor will 'advise', perhaps strongly, that you should have searches done, but he has a professional duty to do this. Do take into account; if you are going to dispose of the house in the future, it will be of interest to your future buyer what the searches disclose. Sometimes premises with functional issues can still reveal unfavourable search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in Lyddington should be able to give you some practical guidance in this regard.
My bid for a property was accepted at auction in Lyddington. Conveyancing is required. What are my next steps?
Now that you are legally bound yourself to purchase you should appoint a conveyancing lawyer as a matter of priority as you now have a tight deadline in which to complete the deal. Every auction property will ordinarily have a bespoke auction set of papers. This will include the copy title deeds, local authority and drainage searches. In the case of leasehold property the conveyancing papers should provide a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and other conveyancing paperwork relating to a leasehold property. You should hand this to your appointed conveyancing solicitor as soon as possible. Do make sure that your finances are in place to complete the transaction on the set completion date.
We have agreed to purchase a house in Lyddington. One unusual aspect is that the roof has a solar panel. Virgin Money have issued a mortgage offer so presumably this is not a concern to them. Why is my solicitor raising questions about the panel?
As your lender is Virgin Money your lawyer must follow the conveyancing requirements outlined in Part 2 of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Virgin Money. The CML Handbook sets out minimum conditions for solar panel roof-space leases, and lawyers are required to report to Virgin Money where a lease fails to satisfy these specifications. The conditions relate to the installation of panels on properties nationwide and is not limited to Lyddington.
The formalities of my remortgage has taken place for my property in Lyddington. Conveyancing was a necessary evil but I feel I should register my dissatisfaction about the lender. How do I make a complaint?
Most banks and building societies have complaints procedures. Your first port of call should be one of the lender’s branches or the Customer Care Team at head office. In most cases complaints to a lender are sorted out very quickly. However if you are not satisfied that the matter is not resolved you can write to Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR with full details of your complaint.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold element on a property I have offered on two weeks back in what should have been a simple, no chain conveyancing. Lyddington is the location of the property. Is there any guidance you can give?
Flying freeholds in Lyddington are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Lyddington you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Lyddington may determine that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold residence.
Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Lyddington from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?
- Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Lyddington can be reduced where you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ representatives. A minority of Lyddington leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet the annual service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors. If there is a history of conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved prior to the flat being marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where a dispute is unresolved. You may have to bite the bullet and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as over as opposed to ongoing. You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but you should double-check by asking your lawyers. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to where the lease term is less than 75 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you consider whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.
I own a basement flat in Lyddington, conveyancing having been completed May 2009. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Equivalent properties in Lyddington with over 90 years remaining are worth £211,000. The ground rent is £45 invoiced every year. The lease finishes on 21st October 2093
With 67 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £10,500 and £12,000 plus costs.
The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide a more accurate figure without more comprehensive due diligence. Do not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.
My husband and I are hoping to buy a three bedroom bungalowin Lyddington with a home loan from a lender. We like our lawyer in Lyddington but our mortgage company inform us now that he's not listed on their "panel". Apparently we need to choose one of the our bank panel firms or stay with our Lyddington conveyancer and pay for one of their panel ones to represent our lender. This seems very unfair; is there anything we can do?
Unfortunately,no. The mortgage company home loan issued is subject to conditions, one of which will be that solicitors will on the lender's conveyancing panel. in the past, most lenders had open panels, including almost all conveyancing solicitors in Lyddington : a mortgagee 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 solicitors to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for your lender.