My partner and I are hoping to acquire a flat in Shirehampton and are in fact using a Shirehampton conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Skipton Building Society have this morning contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Shirehampton solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
If you are buying a property with the assistance of 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your lender 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Shirehampton lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
Having spent time looking at online forums for a high-quality solicitor in Shirehampton, most advise that I should use a CQS assured solicitor. Can you explain what CQS is?
Shirehampton Conveyancing Quality Scheme solicitors have achieved accreditation under the Law Society's Scheme (CQS) The Law Society established CQS to promote high standards in the home legal process. CQS enables buyers and sellers to recognise practices that provide a quality residential conveyancing. Shirehampton is one of the many areas in England and Wales in which accredited firms are based. The scheme obliges solicitors to undergo a strict assessment, compulsory training, self-certification, spot checks and yearly assessments in order to maintain CQS status. It is available to solicitors and not licensed conveyancers and has the support of the Association of British Insurers.
I have justdiscovered that Action Conveyancing have been shut down. They carried out my conveyancing in Shirehampton for a purchase of a leasehold apartment 9 months ago. How can I establish that my home is not still registered in the name of the former proprietor?
The quickest way to see if the property is in your name, 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 Shirehampton conveyancing specialists.
As co-executor for the will of my uncle I am selling a residence in Monmouth but I am based in Shirehampton. My conveyancer (approximately 235 miles from mehas requested that I sign a stat dec prior to the transaction finalising. Can you recommend a conveyancing lawyer in Shirehampton to attest this legal document for me?
strictly speaking you are not likely to be required to have the documents attested by a conveyancing solicitor. Ordinarily any notary public or qualified solicitor will do regardless of whether they are Shirehampton based
I've recently bought a leasehold flat in Shirehampton. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?
Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.
If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).
I own a leasehold flat in Shirehampton, conveyancing was carried out March 2006. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Similar properties in Shirehampton with over 90 years remaining are worth £195,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 invoiced annually. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2087
You have 63 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £16,200 and £18,600 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.
The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.
My step-son is embarking on her first house purchase, the home loan was agreed last week in principle. One the offer was accepted on house we rang the building society to issue the formal offer. I was shocked to discover that mortgage companies do not accept all solicitor, they must be on their panel, is this right?
Mortgage Companies ordinarily imposes restrictions either the type or the number of conveyancing firms 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 Shirehampton conveyancer 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? Unlikely.