My husband and I are planning to acquire a flat in Needham Market and are in fact using a Needham Market conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. The Royal Bank of Scotland have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Needham Market solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 solicitor should contact your bank 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Needham Market solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
As I am unsure how the conveyancing bit works what is the most important number one tip you can impart about purchase conveyancing in Needham Market?
Not many law firms or advisers will tell you this but conveyancing in Needham Market and elsewhere in Suffolk is an adversarial process. In other words, when it comes to conveyancing there exists lots of opportunity for friction between you and other parties involved in the ownership transfer. E.g., the seller, estate agent and even potentially your lender. Selecting a solicitor for your conveyancing in Needham Market should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONLY person in the process whose interest is to protect your best interests and to keep you safe.
We are witnessing a distinct increase of a "blame" culture- someone must be blamed for the process taking so long. We recommend that you must always trust your lawyer ahead of the other parties in the conveyancing process.
Various web forums that I have visited warn that are a common cause of delay in Needham Market conveyancing transactions. Is this right?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) published determinations of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not figure amongst the top 10 causes of hindrances during the legal transfer of property. Searches are not likely to be the root cause of slowing down conveyancing in Needham Market.
It has been five months since my purchase conveyancing in Needham Market took place. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £150,000 when infact I paid £170,000. 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 premises 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.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a flat up to £245,000 and found one near me in Needham Market I like with amenity areas and railway links in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 49 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Needham Market for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a short lease?
Should you need a mortgage that many years may be problematic. Discount the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this matter.
To what extent are Needham Market conveyancing solicitors under an obligation to the Law Society to publish clear conveyancing figures?
Contained within the Solicitors Code of Conduct are set rules and regulations as to how the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) allow solicitors to publicise their fees to clients.The Law Society have a practice note giving advice on how to publicise transparent charges to avoid breaching any such rule. Practice notes are not legal advice issued by the Law Society and is not to be regarded as the only standard of good practice a conveyancing solicitor should adhere to. The Practice Note does, however, constitute the Law Society’s view of acceptable practice for publicising conveyancing charges, and accordingly it’s a recommended read for any solicitor or conveyancer in Needham Market or further afield.