My wife and I are looking to buy a house in Surrey and have instructed a Surrey conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Virgin Money have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Surrey solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers 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 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 bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Surrey lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
Me and my partner are due to complete on the purchase of a property in Surrey but as a consequence of damage from the recent storms I have managed to agree reparation from the seller of £3k taking the form of a deduction in the price. I had intended this to be addressed as part of the conveyancing process however Santander are not allowing this. Should they have been informed?
Any conveyancer that is on a Santander conveyancing panel is required to inform Santander of any changes to the sale price. If you prohibit your conveyancing practitioner to disclose the reduction to Santander then they would have to discontinue acting for you. In addition, Santander and you would have to appoint a new property lawyer for your conveyancing in Surrey.
I need some expedited conveyancing in Surrey as I have pressure to complete within one month. A home loan is not required. Is it possible to avoid the conveyancing searches to save fees and time?
If.Given you are not getting a home loan you have the choice not to do searches although no solicitor would advise that you don't. With lots of history conveyancing in Surrey the following are instances of issues that can arise and therefore impact future mortgageability: Refused Planning Applications, Overdue Charges, Overdue Grants, Road Schemes,...
Given that I am about to spend £400,000 on a terraced house in Surrey I wish to have a conversation with the solicitor concerning thetransaction before giving the go ahead to the firm. Can this be arranged?
We could not agree more - it is our preference to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you speaking to the solicitor who will be doing your property ownership legalities in Surrey.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - each client is unique person, not a case number. The practices that we put you in touch with believe that the figure you are quoted for residential conveyancing in Surrey should be the figure that you are charged.
What advice can you give us when it comes to appointing a Surrey conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?
If you are instructing a conveyancer for lease extension works (regardless if they are a Surrey conveyancing practice) it is essential that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We suggest that you make enquires with several firms including non Surrey conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then so much the better. The following questions might be of use:
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What are the costs for lease extension conveyancing? What volume of lease extensions has the firm carried out in Surrey in the last twenty four months?
Surrey Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Questions you should consider before buying
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Make sure you find out if there is anything that is prohibited in the lease. By way of example it is very common in Surrey leases that pets are not permitted in certain buildings in Surrey. If you like the propertyin Surrey yet your cat can’t live with you then you will be presented with a difficult choice. Where a Surrey lease has fewer than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the salability of the apartment. It is worth checking with your bank that they are happy with residual term of the lease. A short lease means that you will probably have to extend the lease sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of how much this would cost. Remember, in most cases you will be be obliged to have owned the residence for a couple of years before you are eligible to extend the lease. Does the lease have onerous restrictions?
The lawyers carrying out our conveyancing in Surrey has sent papers to review that show the property is unregistered with epitome documents. How can it be that the property not registred at the Land Registry?
It is a rare occurrence indeed to find property in Surrey to be unregistered. An 'epitome' is basically a dossier of photocopies of documents affecting an unregistered title. Many Surrey conveyancing lawyers will be familiar with this type of conveyancing but where uncertainty exists the conventional recommendation presently is for the current owners to deal with the registration formalities first and subsequently deal with the sale conveyance - this will predictably cause a significant delay.