My partner and I are looking to acquire a home in Warkworth and have appointed a Warkworth conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Britannia have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Warkworth lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the mortgage company. 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 solicitor 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 and you may continue to use your own Warkworth solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
My wife and I are due to exchange buying a house in Warkworth but as a consequence of damage from the recent storms I have managed to agree recompense from the current proprietors in the sum of £3k in the form of a deduction in the price. This was going to be addressed as part of the conveyancing process yet HSBC will not agree to this. Why were they approached?
Any conveyancer being on a HSBC conveyancing panel is obliged to advise HSBC of any changes to the purchase price. If you prohibit your solicitor to disclose the price change to HSBC then they would have to discontinue acting for you. In addition, HSBC and you would have to appoint a new conveyancing practitioner for your conveyancing in Warkworth.
We wanted to use a property lawyer in Warkworth for our house purchase. Our broker has since advised us that our mortgage company Barclays won't deal with them. Why is this not regarded as unfair competition?
Mortgage Companies in the main imposes restrictions either the category or the volume of conveyancing solicitors on their member panel. Typical examples of such criteria being that a law practice must not be a sole practitioner. As well as restricting the profile of firm, a few lenders have decided to limit the number of firms they allow to act for them. You should note that Barclays have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of Barclays Conveyancer Panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of solicitor panels a few years ago even though there are differing opinions concerning the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Data from the Land Registry indicate that plenty of law firms, including some in or near Warkworth only perform very few conveyances a year.
I am looking for a ground for flat up to £235,500 and identified one round the corner in Warkworth I like with amenity areas and railway links in the vicinity, however it only has 49 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Warkworth in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a short lease?
Should you need a home loan the shortness of the lease will be problematic. Reduce the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you may request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer regarding this.
I need to appoint a conveyancing solicitor for purchase conveyancing in Warkworth. I've stumble upon a site which looks to be the ideal answer If it is possible to get all this stuff completed via phone that would be ideal. Do I need to 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?
After what seems like an age I have had an offer on an apartment in Warkworth agreed to, but there is a chain. The sellers have offered on a flat, however it’s not yet tied up, and has viewings of other apartments booked. I have selected a nearby conveyancing lawyer in Warkworth. What do I do now? At what stage do I apply for the mortgage with Principality?
It is standard to have apprehensions where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to incur costs prematurely (mortgage application is approx £1k, then valuation, Warkworth conveyancing search charges, etc). First, you must check that your property lawyer is on the Principality conveyancing panel. Regarding the subsequent stages this very much dictated by the specifics of your case, desire for this property and on the state of the market. During a hot market some buyers will apply for a home loan with Principality and arrange for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they ask their property lawyer to proceed with the conveyancing in Warkworth.