I plan on purchasing a leasehold flat in Stepney. My lawyer is not on the bank solicitor list. Can I still appoint my Stepney conveyancing solicitor even though they are excluded from the bank panel of approved conveyancing solicitors?
Various options include
- Carry on with your preferred Stepney property lawyer but your lender will undoubtedly instruct a lawyer on their approved list. This will result in additional cost and probable frustration.
- Appoint a new lawyer to conduct the conveyancing, making sure they are on the mortgage company conveyancing panel.
- Appeal to your conveyancing practitioner to apply to join the bank panel
Do the conveyancing solicitors listed on your site conduct conveyancing in Stepney by way of an attended exchange?
There are a few conveyancing specialists who can conduct one day exchanges. Do e-mail us to get a fee calculation and details as to availability.
The Stepney conveyancing firm that I recently instructed on my house acquisition in Stepney have suddenly closed. They were on acting for me because I had to have a lawyer on the Co-operative conveyancing panel and my family Stepney lawyer was not. I paid them 275 plus VAT on account. What do I do now?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then let them know immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Co-operative 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 help.
Forgive me if this question is silly but I am wet behind the ears as FTB of a ground floor flat in Stepney. Do I pick up the keys to the property on completion from my lawyer? If so, I will use a High Street conveyancing solicitor in Stepney?
There is no need to visit the lawyers office on the day of completion. Your solicitors will transfer the completion advance to the owner’s solicitors, and shortly after the monies have arrived, you will be called to receive the keys from the Estate Agents and start moving into the property. This tends to happen early afternoon.
My father pointed out to me me that in purchasing a property in Stepney there may be a number of restrictions preventing external alterations to a property. Is this right?
There are anumerous of properties in Stepney which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to carry out external alterations. Part of the conveyancing in Stepney should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.
I recently had an offer agreed on a house in Stepney. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their solicitor. I paid an upfront payment of £225. A couple of days later, the property lawyer called me to say that they were not on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Virgin Money panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
My wife and I own a renovated Georgian property in Stepney. Conveyancing solicitor represented me and Alliance & Leicester . I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw two entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold with the exact same address. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You need to review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Stepney and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with buyers. You can also check the position with your conveyancing practitioner who carried out the work.
I am looking into buying my first house which is in Stepney and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Stepney. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Stepney area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?
Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Stepney. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found