My partner and I are looking to acquire a home in White City and are in fact using a White City conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Barclays Direct have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our White City lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is standard 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your property lawyer 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 White City lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
We are about to exchange contracts for a property in White City. We have hit a stumbling block. The loan offer with The Royal Bank of Scotland expires on 10/2/2025 but the sellers are suggesting a completion date of 12/2/2025. Can one extend the mortgage offer?
The person best placed to deal with your concern is your lawyer who should calculate if they better off negotiating with the lender, owner’s lawyers, estate agents or indeed all three based on what has gone on in your transaction to date.
Why do I have to pay up front for my conveyancing in White City?
Where you are retaining lawyers for conveyancing in White City your solicitor will ask you put them with funds to cover the the cost of the conveyancing searches. This will be the total of the cost of the conveyancing searches. If any deposit is as part of the purchase price then this will be needed shortly before contracts are exchanged. Any further balance that is due should be sent to your lawyer shortly before completion.
Will our conveyancer be raising enquiries concerning flooding as part of the conveyancing in White City.
Flooding is a growing risk for conveyancers specialising in conveyancing in White City. There are those who buy a property in White City, fully expectant that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical destruction, if a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, satisfactory insurance cover, or sell the property. There are steps that can be taken during the course of a property purchase to forewarn the buyer.
Lawyers are not best placed to give advice on flood risk, however there are a various searches that may be carried out by the buyer or on a buyer’s behalf which should give them a better appreciation of the risks in White City. The conventional set of information supplied to a buyer’s conveyancer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) incorporates a standard inquiry of the seller to discover whether the premises has suffered from flooding. In the event that flooding has previously occurred and is not revealed by the seller, then a purchaser could bring a legal claim for losses resulting from an inaccurate answer. A purchaser’s conveyancers may also conduct an enviro search. This should higlight whether there is a recorded flood risk. If so, further investigations should be conducted.
I have been on the look out for a flat up to £195,000 and found one round the corner in White City I like with amenity areas and transport links in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 61 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in White City suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a lease with such few years left?
Should you require a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be a potential deal breaker. Reduce the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you could ask them to start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this.
Am I best advised to instruct a White City conveyancing practitioner who is local to the property I am purchasing? We have a good friend who can conduct the conveyancing however they are based over three hundred kilometers drive away.
The benefit of a high street White City conveyancing firm is that you can pop in to execute documents, hand in your identification documents and pester them if necessary. Having local White City know how is a bonus. That being said nothing is more important than finding someone that will do a good and efficient job. If other friends have instructed your friend and the majority were happy that must outweigh using an unknown White City conveyancing solicitor solely due to them being based in the area.