My fiance and I are hoping to acquire a house in Tiverton and have appointed a Tiverton conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Birmingham Midshires have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Tiverton conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is conventional 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 lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Tiverton solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
My husband and I are approaching an exchange on a flat in Tiverton and my mum and dad have transferred the exchange deposit to my lawyer. I am now informed that as the deposit has not arrived from me my solicitor needs to make a notification to my bank. I am advised that, in also acting for the mortgage company he must advise them that the balance of the purchase price is not just from me. I informed the lender concerning my parents' contribution when I applied for the home loan, so is it really appropriate for him to raise this?
Your property lawyer is obliged to clarify with the bank to ensure that they are aware that the balance of the purchase price is not from your own resources. Your solicitor can only reveal this to your mortgage company if you permit them to, failing which, your lawyer must cease to continue acting.
My aunt informed me that in purchasing a property in Tiverton there may be various restrictions preventing external alterations to the property. Is this right?
There are a number of properties in Tiverton which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to carry out external alterations. Part of the conveyancing in Tiverton 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 accepted on an apartment in Tiverton. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an advanced payment of £175. Soon after, the conveyancer called me to say that they were not on the Aldermore 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 Aldermore 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.
I've read lots of mortgage guides, I note that they all recommend that you should get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local Tiverton solicitor - who is on the UBS conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. Is that normal?
UBS will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually UBS will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your conveyancer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Tiverton postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with UBS, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Tiverton.
I require quick conveyancing in Tiverton as I am under an ultimatum to complete in less than one month. A home loan is not required. Is it possible to decline from having conveyancing searches to save fees and time?
If.Given you are not getting a mortgage you have the choice not to have searches conducted although no solicitor would suggest that you don't. Drawing on our experience of conveyancing in Tiverton the following are examples of issues that can crop up and therefore affect market value: Enforcement Actions, Overdue Charges, Outstanding Grants, Unadopted Roads,...
I need to appoint a conveyancing solicitor for remortgage conveyancing in Tiverton. I happened to stumble across a web site which seems to have the perfect answer If there is a chance to get all formalities completed via phone that would be ideal. Should I be concerned? What are the potential pitfalls?
As usual with these online conveyancers you need to read ALL the small print - did you notice the extra charge for dealing with the mortgage?
Are all Tiverton solicitors on every lender conveyancing panel?
The Lexsure search tool on this page may be of use or you can pop into your high street bank branch in Tiverton. the probability is that they can recommend conveyancing solicitors in Tiverton