I plan on purchasing property in South Kensington. My property lawyer has never been on on the lender conveyancing panel. Is it possible for me to appoint my South Kensington conveyancing solicitor even though they are excluded from the bank panel?
Your options include
- Proceed with your preferred South Kensington solicitor but your bank will undoubtedly use a conveyancer from their approved panel. This will result in additional charges and potential interruption.
- Get a fresh property lawyer to conduct the conveyancing, making sure they are on the mortgage company conveyancing panel.
- Convince your lawyer to pull out all the stops to get listed on the lender’s conveyancing panel
My lawyer in South Kensington is not on the National Westminster Bank Approved Panel. Is it possible for me to use my family solicitor notwithstanding that they are excluded from the National Westminster Bank list of approved lawyers?
Your options are as follows:
- Carry on with your preferred South Kensington lawyers but National Westminster Bank will need to use a solicitor on their list of acceptable firms. This will inevitably rack up the total legal fees and cause delays.
- Choose an alternative practitioner to to deal with the purchase, obviously checking they are National Westminster Bank approved.
- Persuade your National Westminster Bank solicitor to seek to join the National Westminster Bank panel
We are purchasing a property in South Kensington. I might seem paranoid but how we can trust a solicitor? At some point we will need to send our life savings into their account. What is the protection we have from them run away with our monies?
Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.
My stepmother advised me that in purchasing a property in South Kensington 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 South Kensington which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to external changes. Part of the conveyancing in South Kensington should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.
The mortgage over my property is with TSB for my property in South Kensington. Conveyancing has been completed some time ago. In the event that I decide to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform TSB?
You must advise TSB in advance of letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of TSB’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will allow you to rent out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact TSB directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a TSB conveyancing panel lawyer.
What can a local search inform me concerning the property my wife and I purchasing in South Kensington?
South Kensington conveyancing often commences with the ordering local authority searches directly from your local Authority or through a personal search organisations for instance PSG The local search plays an important role in most South Kensington conveyancing purchase; that is if you don’t want any unpleasant once you have moved into your property. The search should provide information on, amongst other things, details on planning applications applicable to the premises (whether granted or refused), building control history, any enforcement action, restrictions on permitted development, nearby road schemes, contaminated land and radon gas; in all a total of thirteen subject sections.
I'm purchasing my first flat in South Kensington benefiting from help to buy. The sellers refused to reduce the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The estate agent advised me not inform my solicitor about this deal as it will adversely affect my mortgage with the lender. Should I keep quiet?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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 previously informed by my lender that their approved conveyancers operate no move no charge basis for conveyancing in South Kensington. My purchase did not proceed yet the solicitors have requested search fees! They say the fees are nothing to do with their fees!
South Kensington conveyancing search costs are disbursements not legal costs as these are due to independent parties.