My fiance and I are hoping to buy a house in Towyn and are in fact using a Towyn conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Godiva Mortgages Ltd have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Towyn lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage 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 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 lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Towyn lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
I sincerely hope you can assist me. My Towyn conveyancer is informing me me that he is legally obliged toorder Towyn conveyancing searches due to the fact thatthe firm are on the HSBCsolicitor panel. Do I not have any say here?
You have limited options available to you. As you are obtaining a mortgage with a mortgage company your conveyancer has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your conveyancing practitioner would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of your lender’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to follow the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook requirements . Even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out Towyn conveyancing searches.
Can I use your services to locate a Conveyancing solicitor in Towyn even where I’m not buying or selling a house, for example if I want to buy a shop in Towyn with a mortgage from Barnsley Building Society?
The service is mainly there to get a quote from residential conveyancing solicitors in Towyn but we have recorded at the end of this page a selection of Towyn commercial conveyancing firms. You will need to make contact with the solicitors directly to see if they can also act for Barnsley Building Society
I'm the only recipient of my late grandmother’s will with all property in now in my sole name, including the house in Towyn. The Towyn property was put into my name in January. I want to move. I do know about the CML 6 month 'rule', which means that my property ownership will be treated the same way as though I had purchased the property in January. Will no one buy the property for half a year?
The CML handbook instructs conveyancers to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." By the strict wording you could be impacted by that. How sensible a view banks take of it, depend on the mortgage company as this requirement primarily exists to pick up on subsales or the flipping of properties.
Is it the case that all Towyn solicitors on the Principality conveyancing panel are regulated by the SRA?
As solicitors, in order to be on the Principality approved list of solicitors they would need to be overseen by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. Many lenders do permit licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such firms would be regulated by the CLC.
How can we know in advance if a Towyn conveyancing solicitor on the Co-operative panel is any good?
When it comes to conveyancing in Towyn seeking recommendations is a good start. Before you go ahead, check if they offer a no sale no fee offer. Also, you often get what you pay for - a firm which quotes more, will often provide a better service than one which is cheap as chips. We would always advocate that you speak with the solicitor conducting your conveyancing.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a ground for flat up to £195,000 and found one round the corner in Towyn I like with amenity areas and transport links nearby, the downside is that it only has 52 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Towyn suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a short lease?
If you require a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be an issue. Reduce the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the property for at least twenty four months you can request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer concerning this matter.
I am employed by a busy estate agency in Towyn where we see a number of flat sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have been given contradictory information from local Towyn conveyancing firms. Could you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?
Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.
Alternatively, it may be possible to agree the lease extension with the freeholder either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the buyer.
I purchased a basement flat in Towyn, conveyancing having been completed July 2007. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Equivalent flats in Towyn with an extended lease are worth £216,000. The ground rent is £50 charged once a year. The lease ceases on 21st October 2095
With only 69 years unexpired the likely cost is going to range between £9,500 and £11,000 as well as professional fees.
The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs without more comprehensive due diligence. Do not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be additional concerns that need to be considered and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.