My partner and I swapping mortgage lender for our apartment in Raunds with Virgin Money. We have a son approaching twenty who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose any adults other than ourselves who lives in the flat. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, waiving any legal 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 Virgin Money conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we purchased 4 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this compromise his rights to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Virgin Money 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 Virgin Money. This is solely used to protect Virgin Money 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 Virgin Money 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.
I have an AIP. The lender mentioned the loan came with free conveyancing. Is the implication that I have to use their panel solicitor as I would prefer to instruct a Raunds based conveyancing firm?
Do check but the the probability is that appoint one of their panel conveyancers where you want the "fee-free" offer. Contact the lender to check if they make available a cash alternative. In the past a few mortgage companies offered a £250 cashback as a further option in which case that money can go towards your preferred conveyancing solicitor near Raunds.
We are getting a further advance on our home loan from Nationwide as we wish to conduct improvements to our house in Raunds. Do we need to select a high street Raunds solicitor on the Nationwide conveyancing panel to handle the paperwork?
Nationwide do not ordinarily require firms on their conveyancing panel to handle such a matter. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Nationwide list.
Completion of my purchase has taken place for my property in Raunds. Conveyancing was a necessary evil but I would like to complain about the lender. Who do I contact should I wish to lodge a complaint?
All banks and building societies have complaints procedures. Your first port of call should be one of the lender’s branches or the Customer Care Team at head office. In most cases complaints to a lender are resolved effectively and efficiently. If you feel the matter is not resolved you can write to Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR who will take matters further.
I recently had an offer agreed on an apartment in Raunds. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their property lawyer. I paid an advanced payment of £200. Shortly after, the conveyancing practitioner called me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Clydesdale panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
How does conveyancing in Raunds differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build premises in Raunds contact us having been asked by the seller to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the residence is constructed. This is because house builders in Raunds typically acquire the land, 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 conveyancing solicitors 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 accustomed to new build conveyancing in Raunds or who has acted in the same development.
I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Raunds. Before I get started I require certainty as to the unexpired term of the lease.
Assuming the lease is registered - and almost all are in Raunds - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title. For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.
I own a 2 bed flat in Raunds, conveyancing formalities finalised March 2002. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Equivalent properties in Raunds with a long lease are worth £265,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 invoiced annually. The lease finishes on 21st October 2100
You have 76 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £8,600 and £9,800 as well as professional fees.
The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of detailed due diligence. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be additional issues that need to be considered and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.
My nephew is embarking on her first house purchase, the home loan was agreed last week in principle. One the seller agreed the offer on the house we contacted the lender to go forward with his. We were very surprised to learn that mortgage lenders do not accept all solicitor, they have to be on a list, is this correct?
Mortgage Companies ordinarily restrict either the type or the number of conveyancing solicitors on their panel. A common example of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that lenders have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any Raunds lawyer on their panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, conveyancing is not their speciality. To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime? Probably not.