I am selling my house in Northolt and the estate agent has just called to warn that the buyers are appointing a new conveyancer. The excuse is that the bank will only deal with property lawyers on their approved list. On what basis would a leading mortgage company only deal with certain law firms rather the firm that they want to appoint to handle their conveyancing in Northolt ?
Lenders have always had an approved set of law firms they are content to work with, but in the past few years big names such as Lloyds Banking Group, have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for more than 15 years.
Banks point to the increase in fraud by way of justification for the reduction – 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 claims that it is being contacted daily by practices that have been removed from panels. Plenty of firms 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 not going to have any sway in the decision.
We are selling our house in Northolt. Does the conveyancer have to be required to be on the Barclays conveyancing panel in order to deal with the discharge of my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Barclays conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their specifications fairly frequently in recent years.
What can a local search inform me about the house we're buying in Northolt?
Northolt conveyancing often starts with the submitting local authority searches directly from your local Authority or via a personal search company such as PSG The local search plays a central part in many a Northolt conveyancing purchase; as long as you don’t want any unpleasant once you have moved into your new home. The search should provide information on, amongst other things, details on planning applications relevant to the property (whether granted or refused), building control history, any enforcement action, restrictions on permitted development, nearby road schemes, contaminated land and radon gas; in all a total of thirteen subject headings.
I have todaydiscovered that Stirling Law have closed. They carried out my conveyancing in Northolt for a purchase of a leasehold flat 10 months ago. How can I check that the property is not still registered in the name of the previous owner?
The quickest way to see if the property is registered to you, you can make a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Northolt conveyancing specialists.
I am purchasing my first flat in Northolt benefiting from help to buy. The sellers would not move on the amount so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of additionals instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not disclose to my lawyer about this deal as it could jeopardize my mortgage with the lender. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.
My conveyancers in Northolt have advised me that they can not locate my conveyancing file. To assist with my purchase I took out a mortgage with the bank. Is it case that being on the mortgage company conveyancing panel they need to have retained the file for a prescribed period?
Different lenders have different requirements but many of the Terms and Conditions of Conveyancing Panel Appointment require the file to be held for a period of 6 years. That being said we have not seen a copy of the bank Conveyancing Panel Terms. It might be worth you contacting the bank directly.