My partner and I are looking to buy a home in Seaton and have appointed a Seaton conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Bank of Scotland have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Seaton solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the purchaser's lender. 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 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 Seaton lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
My fiancee and I are in the throws of looking at flats in Seaton and I am about to put in an offer. Should I already have a lawyer appointed at this point? I intend to finance via a mortgage with Leeds Building Society.
You should start obtaining conveyancing estimates from solicitors ASAP. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and pass their details on to the EA. Given that you are taking out a mortgage with Leeds Building Society, ask your prospective lawyers if they are on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel otherwise they can't do the mortgage legal work.
Intending to buy a apartment in Seaton. I have received an online quote from a licenced conveyancer, which states: "There will be no charge for dealing with the Building Society if you are obtaining a mortgage". I take this to mean that there will be no additional fee if the solicitor is on the Barclays conveyancing panel. I wanted to make sure it means there will be no additional fees for dealing with the mortgage.
They are simply saying that the cost for acting for the lender is included in the fee being quoted. It is worth you checking that the Seaton conveyancer is on the Barclays conveyancing panel.
I was told three weeks ago that my mortgage has been agreed to by Clydesdale. Is it usual for Clydesdale to only issue the offer once my solicitor in Seaton is approved on their conveyancing panel? Clydesdale have asked my solicitor to see a copy of their PI Insurance.
A lender would not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Clydesdale to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly identified as part of conveyancing in Seaton?
Covenants that are restrictive in nature can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Seaton. 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'm purchasing my first flat in Seaton with a mortgage from Godiva Mortgages Ltd. The developers would not move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The house builders rep advised me not reveal to my lawyer about the extras as it could adversely affect my loan with the lender. 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 decided to have a survey carried out on a property in Seaton prior to retaining conveyancers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold element to the house. The surveyor advised that some mortgage companies may refuse to give a loan on this type of home.
It depends who your proposed lender is. HSBC has different requirements from Halifax. If you e-mail us we can check with the relevant mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Seaton. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Seaton to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.
My husband and I are novice buyers - agreed a price, but the selling agent advised that the vendor will only move forward if we instruct their recommended conveyancers as they are insisting on a ‘quick sale’. Our preferred option is to instruct a family solicitor accustomed to conveyancing in Seaton
It is highly unlikely the sellers are driving this. Should the vendor require ‘a quick sale', turning down a genuine purchaser is likely to cause more damage than good. Bypass the agents and go straight to the owners and make the point that (a)you are genuine purchasers (b)you are excited to move forward, with finances arranged © you have nothing to sell (d) you intend to proceed fast (e)however you will continue to use your preferred Seaton conveyancing solicitors - as opposed tothe ones that will give the estate agent a kickback or achieve conveyancing figures set by HQ.