My husband and I are planning to acquire a house in Oadby and have instructed a Oadby conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Norwich and Peterborough Building Society have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Oadby lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' solicitors 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 solicitor 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 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 Oadby solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
I am purchasing a terraced house in Oadby. Conveyancing solicitors are said to be ‘a necessary evil’ but can I do it myself?
Leaving aside the complexities and merits of DIY conveyancing in Oadby you will have to appoint a solicitor on your bank's conveyancing panel to look after their interests. Most people therefore find it easier to let the solicitor act for them and the lender. Furthermore there is minimal cost savings to be made in you doing conveyancing for yourself and another lawyer conducting the conveyancing for the lender. Please feel free to use the search tool to find a lawyer on your lender panel in Oadby.
There are numerous conveyancing solicitors in Oadby but how do I know who I should use?
We would encourage you not to go for the lowest Oadby conveyancing costs illustration. You really do get what you pay for when it comes to conveyancing solicitors. A cheap quote may mean that the conveyancing solicitor is handling a lot of jobs at one time and you won’t get the quality of service and the attention that you need. It is, however, wise to use a conveyancer who has a fixed fee on a no sale, no fee basis. This way, you go into the conveyancing with your eyes wide open.
A friend advised me that in purchasing a property in Oadby there could be a number of restrictions affecting the ability to carry out external changes to the property. Is this right?
There are a number of properties in Oadby which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to external variations. Part of the conveyancing in Oadby should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.
I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with Nationwide. I assume I don't need a Oadby lawyer on the Nationwide panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.
If you have finished paying off your Nationwide mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Nationwide mortgage from the register. Nationwide, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where Nationwide has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Nationwide has instructed the Land Registry to do so
A relative recommended that if I am purchasing in Oadby I should ask my conveyancer to execute a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is usually included in the estimate for your Oadby conveyancing searches. It is a large report of about 40 pages, listing and setting out significant information about Oadby around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Oadby Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Oadby Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about Oadby.
I'm purchasing a new build house in Oadby with the aid of help to buy. The sellers would not move on the amount so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The house builders rep advised me not reveal to my lawyer about this side-deal as it may put at risk my mortgage with the bank. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder 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.
I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold element on a house I have offered on a fortnight ago in what was supposed to be a simple, no chain conveyancing. Oadby is where the house is located. Can you offer any opinion?
Flying freeholds in Oadby are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Oadby you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds thoroughly. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Oadby may determine that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold premises.