After what seems like an age a loan offer from Nationwide for the refinancing of my 3 bedroom maisonette is coming imminently. Can you propose a cheap conveyancing law firm in St Helens?
You are on the wrong site if you are seeking a cheap conveyancing solicitors in St Helens. Our goal is to offer excellent value conveyancing but we do not advertise as being the cheapest. Resist the temptation to appoint brokers enticing you with low cost conveyancing in St Helens. Optimistically, in choosing a lawyer for low cost conveyancing, you will get your money’s worth and at worst you will end up being stung for extras and still not get the service you were hoping for.
My partner and I are buying a newly built flat in St Helens and my lawyer is informing me that she is duty bound to the bank to reveal incentives from the developer. I am on a tight deadline to sign contracts and I have no desire to delay deal. is my lawyer playing by the book?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancing practitioner. A precondition to being on a bank panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook specifications. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
Completed the sale of my flat in St Helens last August yet the purchaser is calling me complaining that her solicitor needs to hear from mine. What are the post completion sale formalities now that I have sold?
After completion of your disposal your lawyer should send the transfer deeds and all additional paperwork to the buyer’s solicitors. If applicable, your solicitor should also send confirmation that the home loan has been paid off to the purchasers solicitors. There is unlikely to be post completion steps peculiar conveyancing in St Helens.
We wish to acquire a 2 bedroom apartment in St Helens with a homeloan from Halifax.We like our St Helens conveyancing practitioner but Halifax says he's not on their "panel". It seems we have no choice but to instruct a Halifax panel lawyer or keep our local solicitor and fork out for one of their panel ones to represent them. We feel as though this is unjust; Can we not simply insist that Halifax use our lawyer?
No, not really. The home loan offered to you contains various provisions, one of which will be that solicitors will be on the Halifax solicitor panel. Until recently, most banks had large numbers of solicitors on their panels: a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. A further alternative is for your lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for Halifax
Me and my partner are purchasing a apartment in St Helens. It might be a silly question but how we can trust a solicitor? At some point we have to send funds 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 fiancee and I are in the process of looking at flats in St Helens and I am about to put in an offer. Is it too early to have a solicitor in place? I am planning to take a mortgage with Kent Reliance.
You should start obtaining conveyancing quotes 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 seeking a mortgage with Kent Reliance, make sure you remember to check that your lawyer is on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel.
The mortgage over my property is with Bank of Ireland for my property in St Helens. Conveyancing was finalised months ago. In the event that I decide to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Bank of Ireland?
You must advise Bank of Ireland before letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Bank of Ireland’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let 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 Bank of Ireland directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel lawyer.
My husband and I are buying a first floor flat in St Helens. At the point of instructing our lawyer, they assured us that they were on all major UK bank panels. Our financial adviser contacted us today to advise that they don't seem to be on the Virgin Money approved list. Should that be true, what should we do? Should we simply find a different lawyer that is on their panel or do we pay for dual representation, with Virgin Money selecting their own approved lawyer.
When acquiring a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual for the buyer’s solicitors to also act for the purchaser's lender. In order to act for a bank or building society a lawyer has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the lawyer to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict conditions which the solicitor has to satisfy. Some building societies now insist their panel firms to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Accreditation Scheme. Your conveyancing practitioner should contact Virgin Money to discover 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 don't have to instruct a firm on Virgin Money's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own St Helens solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.