My partner and I are planning to purchase a home in Minera and have appointed a Minera conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Alliance & Leicester have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Minera lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for 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 Accreditation 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Minera solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
What is the first thing I need to know about purchase conveyancing in Minera?
You may not hear this from too many lawyers but conveyancing in Minera and elsewhere in Wrexham is an adversarial process. In other words, when it comes to conveyancing there is lots of opportunity for confrontation between you and other parties involved in the legal transfer of property. E.g., the vendor, selling agent and on occasion the lender. Choosing a law firm for your conveyancing in Minera is a critical decision as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONLY party in the process whose responsibility is to protect your legal interests and to protect you.
Sometimes a third party with a vested interest may try and persuade you that it is in your interests to do things their way. As an example, the property agent may claim to be assisting by claiming that your conveyancer is wrong. Or your financial adviser may try to convince you to do something that is against your conveyancers guidance. You should always trust your lawyer above all other parties in the conveyancing process.
It has been five months following my purchase conveyancing in Minera completed. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £200,000 when infact I paid £160,000. 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 residence 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.
How does conveyancing in Minera differ for new build properties?
Most buyers of new build residence in Minera come to us having been asked by the seller to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the residence is constructed. This is because developers in Minera typically acquire the land, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct property lawyers as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are accustomed to new build conveyancing in Minera or who has acted in the same development.
Due to the input of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in Minera before appointing conveyancers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold aspect to the house. The surveyor has said that some mortgage companies tend refuse to grant a mortgage on such a property.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Lloyds has different instructions for example to Birmingham Midshires. If you e-mail us we can check via the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Minera. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Minera to see if the conveyancing will be more expensive.
I have been advised by a number of selling agents in Minera to get a quote from a conveyancer using your seach tool. Is there a financial inducement for Estate Agents to offer your services over alternative conveyancing organisations?
We refuse to make any referral fee for directing people our way. We thought it would be too underhand to pay a commission because a client could think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I getting any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.