My fiance and I are hoping to purchase a house in Stafford and have appointed a Stafford conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. The Royal Bank of Scotland have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Stafford lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is normal 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 Quality 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 lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Stafford lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
The Stafford conveyancing lawyers that I recently instructed on my purchase in Stafford have suddenly closed. I chose them because I needed a firm on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel and my family Stafford lawyer was not. I issued them a cheque for £250 in advance. What should be my next steps?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them immediately so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors may be able to assist.
I am selling our home in Stafford and the buyers lawyers are claiming that there is a risk of it being constructed on contaminated land. Any high street Stafford lawyer would know that there is no such problem. For the life of me I don't know why the buyers used an internet conveyancing outfit as opposed to a conveyancing solicitor in Stafford. We have lived in Stafford for many years we know of no issue. Should we get in touch with our local Authority to get confirmation that there is no issue.
It would appear that you have a conveyancing solicitor currently acting for you. What do they say? You should check with your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out life insurance to cover that same illness)
I'm purchasing my first flat in Stafford benefiting from help to buy. The sellers refused to reduce the amount so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The estate agent told me not to tell my solicitor about this extras as it could jeopardize my mortgage with Bank of Ireland. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.
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 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've recently found out that there is a flying freehold element on a house I put an offer in last month in what should have been a quick, no chain conveyancing. Stafford is where the house is located. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in Stafford are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Stafford you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds thoroughly. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Stafford may decide that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold property.
What does commercial conveyancing in Stafford cover?
Non domestic conveyancing in Stafford incorporates a wide range of advice, supplied by regulated solicitors, relating to business property. By way of example, this type of conveyancing can cover the sale or purchase of freehold business premises or, more commonly, the assignment of existing leases or the drafting of new leasing arrangements. Commercial conveyancing solicitors can also offer advice on the sale of business assets, commercial loans and the termination of leases.