My husband and I are looking to acquire a home in Neath Abbey and are in fact using a Neath Abbey conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Skipton Building Society have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Neath Abbey solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your property lawyer 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 lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Neath Abbey solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
Would the conveyancing practitioners listed on your site handle right to buy conveyancing in Neath Abbey?
We work with numerous conveyancing practitioners who can handle right to buy transactions Do call the lawyers listed in order to secure a costs calculation.
The Neath Abbey conveyancing lawyers that I appointed last week on my purchase in Neath Abbey have without warning shut down. I chose them because I had to have a solicitor on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel and my previous Neath Abbey lawyer was not. I paid them £170 on account. What are my options?
If you have an estate agent involved then let them know straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors may be able to assist.
The deeds to our property are lost. The lawyers who dealt with the conveyancing in Neath Abbey 10 years ago have long since closed. What do I do?
As long as the title is registered the information relating to your ownership will be evidenced by HMLR under a Title Number. It is possible to execute a search at the Land Registry, find your property and obtain up to date copies of the Registered Entries for less than a fiver. If the property is Leasehold then the Land Registry will in most cases hold a certified copy of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be ordered for a small fee.
Is it simple use your search app to find a conveyancing practitioner in Neath Abbey on the authorised to act for my lender?
First choose a lender such as HSBC Bank, Chelsea Building Society or Nottingham Building Society then type in your location for instance Neath Abbey. Conveyancing firms in Neath Abbey and further afield should be shown.
Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Neath Abbey. Before diving in I want to be sure as to the unexpired term of the lease.
If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and 99.9% are in Neath Abbey - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title. For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.
I invested in buying a 1 bedroom flat in Neath Abbey, conveyancing having been completed August 2009. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Similar flats in Neath Abbey with a long lease are worth £265,000. The ground rent is £50 charged once a year. The lease terminates on 21st October 2101
With 76 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to range between £8,600 and £9,800 as well as costs.
The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure without more detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.