I am nearing exchange of contracts for my house in Pembroke and the estate agent has just text me to warn that the purchasers are appointing a new solicitor. The reason given is that the mortgage company will only work with property lawyers on their approved list. Why would a big named mortgage company only engage with specific law firms rather the firm that they want to appoint to handle their conveyancing in Pembroke ?
Banks have always had panels of law firms that can act for them, but in the last few years big names such as Yorkshire Building Society, have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for over 25 years.
Lending institutions point to the increase in fraud as the reason for the cull – criteria have been tightened as a smaller panel is easier to monitor. No lender will say how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society says it is being contacted daily by practices that have been removed from panels. Plenty of firms are unaware that they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. The buyers are unlikely to have any sway in the decision.
My wife and I swapping mortgage lender for our penthouse in Pembroke with RBS. We have a son 18 who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the apartment is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the RBS conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 4 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this compromise his rights to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your RBS conveyancing panel solicitor is doing the right thing as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to RBS. This is solely used to protect RBS if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave. It does not impact your son’s right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of RBS had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up as part of conveyancing in Pembroke?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in Pembroke. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’
I have been on the look out for a flat up to £195,000 and identified one near me in Pembroke I like with open areas and station nearby, the downside is that it only has 61 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Pembroke suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a short lease?
Should you require a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will be an issue. Discount the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing owner has owned the property for at least twenty four months you can request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer about this.
How easy is it to use the search facility to get a quote from a conveyancing solicitor in Pembroke on the panel for my bank?
Step one is to choose a lender such as Nationwide Building Society, Chelsea Building Society or Alliance & Leicester then type in your location a common one being Pembroke. Conveyancing firms in Pembroke and nationally should be identified.
We own a leasehold flat in Pembroke. Conveyancing was finished in 2009. I have been told that I should not allow the the remaining lease term to get too short. Is this right?
Pembroke residential long term leases are for a prescribed period - usually 99 years when they started. However many flats in Pembroke were constructed or converted 35 or more years ago and so these leases now have fewer than eighty years unexpired. That may sound like plenty of time however Banks, Building Societies and other mortgage lenders on the whole require leases to have at least 75 years remaining to be mortgageable. Accordingly when you come to sell the property you will need to extend the term of your lease if you are approaching seventy five years. To increase your property value you should be considering whether to extend your lease long before you come to sell it. Furthermore strong financial reasons to taking action before the lease hits 80 years as when the lease falls below 80 years the amount to be paid to extend starts to increase.