My husband and I are looking to acquire a home in West Moors and have appointed a West Moors conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Godiva Mortgages Ltd have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our West Moors conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property needing 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 property lawyer should contact your mortgage company 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 and you may continue to use your own West Moors solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
The West Moors conveyancing lawyers that I recently instructed on my purchase in West Moors have suddenly shut down. I chose them because I had to have a firm on the Aldermore conveyancing panel and my previous West Moors lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take one hundred and fifty pounds for searches. What do I do now?
If you have an estate agent involved then let them know straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would 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 Aldermore 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 solicitors may be able to help.
I am helping my sister sell her flat in West Moors. Will the conveyancing solicitor order an energy performance certificate or do I organise this?
After the demise of HIPs, energy assessments became a mandatory component of moving house. An energy assessment needs to be commissioned in advance of the property being advertised. It is not something that solicitors ordinarily arrange. If you are instructing a West Moors conveyancing practitioner they might be able to arrange energy performance certificates given their contacts with reputable West Moors providers
I have paid off my mortgage with Principality. I assume I don't need a West Moors property lawyer on the Principality panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.
If you have finished paying off your Principality mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Principality mortgage from the register. Principality, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where Principality has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Principality has instructed the Land Registry to do so
Planning on purchasing a maisonette in West Moors. I have received an online quote from a licenced conveyancer, which states: "There will be no charge for dealing with the Lender if you are obtaining a mortgage". I take this to mean that there will be no additional fee if the solicitor is on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel. I wanted to make sure it means there will be no additional fees for dealing with the mortgage.
They are simply saying that the cost for acting for the lender is included in the fee being quoted. It is worth you checking that the West Moors lawyer is on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel.
What does a local search inform me regarding the property I am buying in West Moors?
West Moors conveyancing often commences with the applying for local authority searches directly from your local Authority or through a personal search organisations for example Searches UK The local search is essential in every West Moors conveyancing purchase; as long as you wish to avoid any nasty surprises after you move into your new home. The search should reveal data on, amongst other things, details on planning applications applicable to the property (whether granted or refused), building control history, any enforcement action, restrictions on permitted development, nearby road schemes, contaminated land and radon gas; in all a total of thirteen subject headings.
It has been five months since my purchase conveyancing in West Moors completed. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £175,000 when infact I paid £215,000. Why the discrepancy?
The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the premises from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.
I decided to have a survey done on a house in West Moors in advance of retaining conveyancers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold element to the house. Our surveyor has said that some lenders tend not grant a mortgage on a flying freehold home.
It varies from the lender to lender. Lloyds has different instructions for example to Birmingham Midshires. If you contact us we can investigate further via the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in West Moors. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.