I am nearing exchange of contracts for my maisonette in Morpeth and the estate agent has just e-mailed to say that the buyers are swapping property lawyer. I am told that this is due to the fact that the mortgage company will only deal with property lawyers on their conveyancing panel. On what basis would a leading lender only engage with specific law firms rather the firm that they want to choose to handle their conveyancing in Morpeth ?
Mortgage companies have always had an approved set of law firms that can represent them, but in the past few years big names such as HSBC, have considered and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for many years.
Lending institutions point to the increase in fraud by way of justification for the cull – criteria have been narrowed as a smaller panel is easier to oversee. No lender will say how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society says it is being contacted daily by practices that have been removed from panels. Some do not even realise they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. Your purchasers are unlikely to have any impact on this.
I am purchasing a property for cash in Morpeth. I have resided for the last dozen years in Morpeth. Conveyancing searches are a lot of money. Given that I know the road and vicinity intimately must I have all the conveyancing searches?
In the absence of a home loan, then the vast majority of the Morpeth conveyancing searches are at your discretion. Your lawyer will try and sway you, no-doubt strongly, that you should have searches done, but she has a professional duty to take that path of advice. One thing to consider; if you are intend to sell the house at a future date, it could be of importance to your future purchaser what the searches disclose. Sometimes premises with apparent issues can still reveal detrimental search results. A competent conveyancing solicitor in Morpeth should provide you some practical advice in this regard.
Can your site be used to locate a Conveyancing solicitor in Morpeth even if I’m not buying or disposing of a house, for instance where I intend to acquire an office in Morpeth with a loan from Barclays ?
Our comparison service is predominantly used to help choose domestic conveyancing solicitors in Morpeth but we have set out at the end of this page a few Morpeth commercial conveyancing firms. You will need to enquire with the company directly to check if they can also act for Barclays
Various internet forums that I have frequented warn that are the primary reason for stalling in Morpeth house deals. Is this right?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) published determinations of research by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not feature amongst the most frequent causes of delays in the conveyancing process. Local searches are unlikely to be the root cause of delay in conveyancing in Morpeth.
I have been on the look out for a flat up to £235,500 and found one near me in Morpeth I like with a park and transport links in the vicinity, however it's only got 49 years on the lease. There is not much else in Morpeth in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a lease with such few years left?
Should you require a mortgage that many years may be problematic. Reduce the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you may request that they start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this matter.
Can you offer any advice when it comes to finding a Morpeth conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?
When appointing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Morpeth conveyancing firm) it is essential that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you make enquires with several firms including non Morpeth conveyancing practices before you instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. The following questions could be useful:
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If the firm is not ALEP accredited then what is the reason? How experienced is the firm with lease extension legislation?
Leasehold Conveyancing in Morpeth - Sample of Questions you should ask before buying
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Where a Morpeth lease has no more than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the marketability of the flat. Check with your bank that they are willing to to proceed given the lease term. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will almost definitely need a lease extension sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of how much this would cost. For most Morpethlease extensions you will need to own the premises for a couple of years in order to be legally able to exercise a lease extension. Does the lease have more than 82 years unexpired?