My wife and I are looking to acquire a flat in Warlingham and are in fact using a Warlingham conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Nationwide Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Warlingham conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers 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 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 bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Warlingham lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
We have rather pushy vendors who has recommended a lock out agreement with a non-refundable deposit 10k. Are such arrangements generally advanced for Warlingham conveyancing transactions?
This type of preliminary agreement is unusual in Warlingham, conveyancers will often direct clients away from them as they detract from the primary focus, namely conveyancing and if you end up having your deposit forfeited then the lawyer at best left with an upset client and at worst a litigious one. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that just because the proprietor has signed a lock out contract they will complete the sale with you. They may be in contravention of the contract if they are offered sufficient financial inducement to do so because a wronged buyer with the benefit of a exclusivity agreement will still be legally obliged to establish consequential losses from the breach and this may not equalise the financial benefit that your vendor may obtain by breaking the contract, no matter how morally condemnable that may be.
What is the best way to investigate if the solicitor carrying out my conveyancing in Warlingham is on the mortgage lender’sapproved panel? I am looking to avoid the situation of having one lawyer for me and one for Halifax thus paying £192.00 in supplemental legal bill.
Please do take advantage of the search tool on this web page. Please choose the mortgage company and type ‘Warlingham’ or your location and you will discover numerous solicitors offices in Warlingham or nearest you.
My wife and I are downsizing from our house in Warlingham and according to the buyers it appears that there is a risk of it being constructed on contaminated land. A high street Warlingham lawyer would know this is not the case. For the life of me I don't know why the purchasers used a nationwide conveyancing practice as opposed to a conveyancing solicitor in Warlingham. We have lived in Warlingham for 4 years we know that this is a non issue. Should we contact our local Authority to obtain clarification that there is no issue.
It would appear that you have a conveyancing firm currently acting for you. What do they say? You should enquire of your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out health insurance to cover that same illness)
I have recentlydiscovered that Wolstenholmes have closed. They conducted my conveyancing in Warlingham for a purchase of a freehold house 10 months ago. How can I be sure that the property is not still registered in the name of the former proprietor?
The easiest method to see if the premises is in your name, you can make a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Warlingham conveyancing specialists.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £245,000 and found one round the corner in Warlingham I like with amenity areas and transport links in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 61 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Warlingham in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a lease with such few years left?
Should you require a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term may be an issue. Discount the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the property for at least 2 years you can ask them to start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor concerning this matter.