My husband and I are planning to acquire a home in St Johns and are in fact using a St Johns conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Nottingham Building Society have this morning contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our St Johns solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the mortgage company. 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 solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred St Johns lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
Our solicitor has uncovered a defect with the lease for the apartment we are purchasing in St Johns. The other side have suggested defective title insurance as a solution. We are content with insurance and will cover the costs. Our property lawyer has advised that he must ensure that the bank is happy with this solution. Are we the client or is the bank?
The short answer to your last question is that, notwithstanding the risk of a conflict of interest, you and the mortgage company are the client. Your conveyancer must comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions require your lawyer to disclose issues such as defects with the lease so that the bank can be afforded the opportunity to check with their valuer as to the extent that the value of the property is affected. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your conveyancing practitioner will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.
The deeds to my house can not be found. The lawyers who conducted the conveyancing in St Johns 4 years ago have long since closed. Will I be able to sell the house?
Gone are the days when you need to have the physical deeds to evidence that you are the registered proprietor of land or property, given that the Land Registry hold details of all registered land or property electronically.
I'm purchasing a new build house in St Johns with a mortgage from Aldermore. The developers would not move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The sale representative suggested that I not inform my solicitor about the side-deal as it would affect my loan with Aldermore. 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.
Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in St Johns. Before I set the wheels in motion I want to be sure as to the unexpired term of the lease.
If the lease is recorded at the land registry - and almost all are in St Johns - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title. For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.
I have attempted and failed to negotiate with my landlord to extend my lease without success. Can I make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal? Can you recommend a St Johns conveyancing firm to help?
if there is a absentee landlord or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to arrive at the price payable.
An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a St Johns property is 73 Walerand Road in August 2012. the result of the findings of the Tribunal led to a premium to be paid for the extended lease in respect of Flat 73 in the sum of £10,040. The premium applicable in respect of Flat 85 was £5,710. This case was in relation to 2 flats. The unexpired term was 72 years.
Our lenders have just issued us with a mortgage offer. We appointed a reputable conveyancer in St Johns two days ago. A couple of hours ago, our financial adviser contacted us saying that the bank said that we cannot use our solicitor as they aren't on their panel. As novices, we did not have a clue that the bank had some control over our choice Is this legal?
You can actually use any conveyancing solicitor you wish to choose for your conveyancing in St Johns but if your bank aren't happy with them you will have to incur an extra fee so the mortgage company can retain their own lawyers. sometimes it is conceivable that your solicitor may apply to get included on to the bank list of approved firms. You can use online tools including lenderpanel.com to find a conveyancing solcitor in St Johns on the bank panel. You can go into your high street lender branch in St Johns. They can recommend conveyancing solicitors in St Johns on the approved list.