My wife and I are planning to buy a flat in New Eltham and have appointed a New Eltham conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. HSBC Bank have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our New Eltham lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers 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 property lawyer 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 solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred New Eltham lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
Please help. My New Eltham lawyer is informing me me that she is duty bound toorder New Eltham conveyancing searches becausethe firm are on the Nat Westconveyancing panel. Do I not have any options here?
Unfortunately both you and your lawyer have little choice here. Given that you are taking out a loan with a mortgage company your conveyancer has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your solicitor would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of your lender’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to follow the CML Handbook specifications . Even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out New Eltham conveyancing searches.
We wanted to use a property lawyer in New Eltham for our home move. Our broker informed us that our mortgage lenders Bank of Ireland won't deal with them. Why is this not regarded as unduly restrictive?
Mortgage Companies ordinarily imposes restrictions either the type or the volume of conveyancing firms on their member panel. Typical examples of such restriction(s) being that a law practice must have two or more partners. As well as restricting the profile of firm, a few banks have limited the amount of firms they use to act for them. You should note that Bank of Ireland have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of Bank of Ireland Conveyancer Panel. Mortgage fraud was a primary driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago even though there remains differing opinions regarding the level of solicitor engagement in some of that fraud. Figures from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms, including some in or near New Eltham only execute very few conveyances per annum.
I just acquired a flat at auction in New Eltham. Conveyancing is required. What is next?
Having to in every practical sense signed on the dotted line you will need to appoint a conveyancing lawyer quickly as you are faced with a fast approaching a drop dead date to complete the deal. Every auction property will have an associated legal set of papers. This will likely include most,if not all of the paperwork that your solicitor requires. In the case of leasehold premises the conveyancing papers should provide a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and associated conveyancing paperwork pertinent to leasehold premises. You must hand this to your appointed conveyancing solicitor at the earliest opportunity. Do make sure that that you have the requisite funding organised to complete on the date specified in the contract.
A colleague advised me that in purchasing a property in New Eltham there may be various restrictions limiting what one can do in terms of external changes to a property. Is this right?
There are a number of properties in New Eltham which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to execute external changes. Part of the conveyancing in New Eltham should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.
Are all New Eltham Conveyancing Quality Solicitors on the UBS conveyancing panel?
It is true that some banks and building societies now utilise CQS as the kick off point for Panel membership such as HSBC and Santander. The Law Society’s CQS membership however is no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. Nevertheless,the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for solicitors wishing to remain on their panels.
How does conveyancing in New Eltham differ for new build properties?
Most buyers of new build or newly converted property in New Eltham contact us having been asked by the builder to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the house is finished. This is because house builders in New Eltham typically purchase the site, 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 conveyancers 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 used to new build conveyancing in New Eltham or who has acted in the same development.
I decided to have a survey done on a property in New Eltham before instructing lawyers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold aspect to the house. The surveyor has said that some banks tend refuse to give a mortgage on a flying freehold home.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Lloyds has different instructions for example to Nationwide. If you e-mail us we can check with the appropriate bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in New Eltham. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in New Eltham especially if they regularly deal with such properties in New Eltham.