My fiance and I are looking to acquire a house in St John's Wood and are in fact using a St John's Wood conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Barclays Direct have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our St John's Wood solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
If you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for 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 property lawyer should contact your bank 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred St John's Wood lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
As someone with no idea as to the St John's Wood conveyancing process what’s the number one tip you can give me for the ownership transfer in St John's Wood
Not many law firms or advisers will tell you this but conveyancing in St John's Wood or throughout England and Wales is often a confrontational process. In other words, when it comes to conveyancing there is plenty of room for confrontation between you and others involved in the house moving process. For example, the seller, selling agent and on occasion your bank. Choosing a law firm for your conveyancing in St John's Wood should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the SOLE person in the transaction whose interest is to protect your best interests and to keep you safe.
There is a definite creep of a "blame" culture- someone has to be at fault for the process being so protracted. We recommend that you should always trust your solicitor ahead of all other parties when it comes to the legal transfer of property.
I can see plenty of information on this site about conveyancing in St John's Wood but can you isolate your top tip for choosing the right conveyancer in St John's Wood
Do not opt for the lowest St John's Wood conveyancing quote. You really do get what you pay for when it comes to property lawyers. A cheap quote may mean that the conveyancing solicitor is handling a lot of jobs at one time and you won’t get the quality of service and the attention that you need. It is, however, wise to use a conveyancer who has a fixed fee on a no sale, no fee basis. This way, you know exactly what you’ll have to pay in advance.
This question may be naive but I am new to the home moving as FTB of a two bedroom flat in St John's Wood. Do I collect the keys to the house on the completion date from my lawyer? If this is the case, I will find a High Street conveyancing solicitor in St John's Wood?
There is no need to visit the lawyers office on the day of completion. Conveyancing lawyers for you will transfer the completion advance to the seller's solicitors, and once they have received this, you will be able to collect the keys from the property Agents and start moving into the property. This tends to happen between 1 and 3pm.
I was told three weeks ago that my mortgage has been agreed to by Bank of Ireland. Is it usual for Bank of Ireland to only issue the offer once my solicitor in St John's Wood is approved on their conveyancing panel? Bank of Ireland have asked my solicitor to see a copy of their PI Insurance.
Mortgage companies tend not to not issue an offer until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Bank of Ireland to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
It has been five months since my purchase conveyancing in St John's Wood completed. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £175,000 when infact I paid £215,000. 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 looking for a conveyancing lawyer in St John's Wood for my remortgage. Is there any facility to check a firm’s record with the legal regulator?
You may search for presented Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) decisions stemming from inquisitions from 2008 onwards. Visit Check a solicitor's record. To find details Pre 2008, or to check a solicitors history, call 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and 09.30 - 18.00 Tuesday. For callers outside the UK, use +44 (0)121 329 6800. The regulator could recorded telephone calls for training reasons.
I’m about to sell my 2 bed apartment in St John's Wood. Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon, but I have recently received a yearly service charge invoice – Do I pay up?
Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should discharge the invoice as you normally would as all ground rent and maintenance invoices should be allotted on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process.
I am the registered owner of a first flat in St John's Wood. In the absence of agreement between myself and the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the premium due for a lease extension?
Absolutely. We can put you in touch with a St John's Wood conveyancing firm who can help.
An example of a Lease Extension case for a St John's Wood property is Garden Flat 195 Goldhurst Terrace in May 2012. The Tribunal held in accordance with section 48 and Schedule 13 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 that the premium for the extended lease should be £60,855.00. This case affected 1 flat. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 60.16 years.