Please help. My Southall solicitor is informing me me that she is duty bound toapply for Southall conveyancing searches due to the fact thatthe firm are on the Virgin Moneyapproved lawyer panel. These Southall searches cost a lot of money can this be avoided?
Unfortunately both you and your lawyer have little choice here. As you are taking a mortgage with a mortgage company your solicitor has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the UK Finance Conveyancing Handbook. Your property lawyer would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of your bank’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to follow the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook requirements . Even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out Southall conveyancing searches.
We see that you have a search directory identifying solicitors on the Santander conveyancing panel. Do firms pay you a commission if I instruct them for our conveyancing in Southall?
We are a listing service only for law firms wishing to communicate if they are on the Santander conveyancing panel or other lender panels. We do not charge referral fees to any conveyancer that you subsequently appoint for your conveyancing in Southall.
My wife and I are buying a apartment in Southall. I might seem paranoid but how we can trust a conveyancer? At some point we will need to put money into their account. What is the protection we have from them run away with our money?
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.
I'm at the point of viewing apartments in Southall and I am now considering a potential offer. Is it best to have my conveyancer on ‘stand by’? I will be getting a mortgage with Bank of Ireland.
You should start requesting 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 contact information on to the estate agent. As you are getting a mortgage with Bank of Ireland, make sure you remember to check that your lawyer is on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel.
Having read lots of house buying guides, I note that they all recommend that you should get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local Southall solicitor - who is on the HSBC conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. Is that normal?
HSBC will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually HSBC will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. You may wish to consider appointing your own Southall surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller.
three months have gone by following my purchase conveyancing in Southall concluded. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £175,000 when infact I paid £160,000. Why the discrepancy?
The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the asset from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.
I am purchasing a new build house in Southall with the aid of help to buy. The sellers would not reduce the amount so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of extras instead. The property agent told me not disclose to my solicitor about this deal as it may jeopardize my mortgage with the bank. Should I keep quiet?.
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 UK Finance website. UK Finance 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.
Due to the input of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in Southall in advance of instructing lawyers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. The surveyor has said that some mortgage companies may refuse to give a mortgage on such a house.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Santander has different instructions from Birmingham Midshires. If you e-mail us we can look into this further via the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Southall. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in Southall especially if they are familiar with such properties in Southall.