My husband and I are planning to acquire a property in Wennington and are in fact using a Wennington conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Platform Home Loans Ltd have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Wennington lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent 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 solicitor 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 Wennington lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
The Wennington conveyancing solicitors that just started acting on my purchase in Wennington have without warning closed. I chose them because I needed a lawyer on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel and my family Wennington lawyer was not. I wrote them a cheque for £250 in advance. What should be my next steps?
If you have an estate agent involved then inform them straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers should be in a position to assist.
I am selling my house. I had a double glazing fitted in March 2010, but did not receive a FENSA certificate or Building Regulation Certificate. My purchaser’s lender, Coventry BS are being a right pain. The Wennington solicitor who is on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel is happy to accept ‘lack of building regulation’ insurance but Coventry BS are requiring a building regulation certificate. Why do Coventry BS have a conveyancing panel if they don't accept advice from them?
It is probably the case that Coventry BS have referred the matter to their valuer. The reason why Coventry BS may not want to accept indemnity insurance is because it does not give them any reassurance that the double glazing was correctly and safely installed. The indemnity insurance merely protects against enforcement action which is very unlikely anyway.
I had an offer accepted on an apartment in Wennington on 12/2/2025, valuation was booked 3 days later, received a clean bill of health. Property lawyer instructed, so all that was missing was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to RBS and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the RBS conveyancing panel. Can the lender hold off the offer?
Mortgage companies tend not to not issue an offer until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for RBS to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the RBS conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
After what feels like an age I have had an offer on a flat in Wennington accepted, the sellers do however have a dependent purchase. The owners have offered on somewhere, however it’s not yet tied up, and are looking at other properties booked. I have instructed a high street conveyancing solicitor in Wennington. What should be my next step? When should I get the mortgage application with Clydesdale going?
It is normal to have concerns where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to incur expenses prematurely (mortgage application is in the region of one thousand pounds, then valuation, Wennington conveyancing search charges, etc). First, you must ensure that your solicitor is on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel. Regarding the subsequent steps this very much depends on the specifics of your case, desire for the property and on the state of the market. During a buoyant market many buyers will apply for the mortgage with Clydesdale and pay for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they request their lawyer to press on with searches.
I have been on the look out for a leasehold apartment up to £305k and identified one near me in Wennington I like with amenity areas and transport links in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 49 years unexpired on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Wennington suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a lease with such few years left?
Should you need a mortgage the shortness of the lease may be an issue. Discount the price by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you can ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this.
I am attracted to a couple of maisonettes in Wennington which have in the region of 50 years remaining on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?
There is no doubt about it. A leasehold apartment in Wennington is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it reduces the value of the property. For most buyers and mortgage companies, leases with under 75 years become less and less marketable. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of premises with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Wennington conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease. They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.
Notwithstanding our best efforts, we have been unsuccessful in seeking a lease extension in Wennington. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?
in cases where there is a missing freeholder or where there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the LVT to calculate the premium.
An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Wennington residence is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case related to 13 flats. The unexpired term was 76 years.
I have miscalculated my finances and am a few thousand pounds short a 10% deposit on my flat purchase in Wennington , but I am keen go ahead. Do I have options?
You can agree a smaller deposit. Many sellers will accept a lower deposit or even no deposit for a first time buyer or 100% mortgage. Be aware though that if you fail to complete you will still need to hand over a minimum of 10% of the purchase price regardless of how much deposit was agreed.
You can also agree a simultaneous exchange and completion as no deposit is required for this however neither party will be tied in until completion actually takes place and it can be risky if sellers change their mind at the last minute