I am in a contract race with another prospective purchaser for a property in Witham. What can I do to accelerate the buying process?
First, If you are under a tight deadline for your conveyancing it is advisable to make sure that your lawyer is familiar with the location as they will have local relationships and intelligence. It is even conceivable that they would have transacted otherhouses in the same road. You would be best advised to use a Witham conveyancing solicitor. Second, make sure that the lawyer is on the lender panel. It is said that 18% of Witham conveyancing deals are held up or jeopardised after discovering a purchaser’s conveyancer was not on their banks panel. In many cases this discovery resulted in the transaction being held up by almost 21 days. It is claimed that this issue impacts in the region of 100,000 home moves annually. Almost all Witham conveyancing firms can not represent certain lenders so do check at the outset.
My apartment in Witham is up for sale and I have a purchaser. Does the conveyancer need to be on the RBS conveyancing panel in order to deal with repayment of my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the RBS conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their requirements fairly frequently currently.
A relative advised me that in purchasing a property in Witham there may be various restrictions affecting the ability to carry out external changes to the property. Is this right?
There are a number of properties in Witham which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to carry out external variations. Part of the conveyancing in Witham should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.
Is it the case that all Witham conveyancing solicitors on the Skipton conveyancing panel are regulated by the SRA?
As solicitors, in order to be on the Skipton conveyancing panel they would need to be overseen by the SRA. Many banks do list licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such practice would be governed by the CLC.
TSB have agreed my home loan in principle, my bid on a house in Witham has been accepted, now what?
The property agent will want to be advised as to your solicitor's details (be sure the conveyancers are on the lender’s approved list). Telephone TSB or the financial adviser and finalise any relevant documentation. TSB will instruct a valuer who will get in contact with the selling agent or seller to schedule a slot for the valuation to happen. Once conducted (assuming no problems) it takes on average a week to get a mortgage offer. TSB will send the offer to you and your lawyers. The transaction will then take it’s course according the nature and complexity of the conveyancing in Witham.
My wife and I purchased a 4 bedroom Georgian house in Witham. Conveyancing solicitor acted for me and Coventry Building Society. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are a couple of entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold with the matching address. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You need to read the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Witham and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with lenders. You can also enquire as to the situation with the conveyancing lawyer who completed the work.
I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I have offered on two weeks back in what was supposed to be a simple, no chain conveyancing. Witham is where the house is located. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in Witham are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Witham you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds thoroughly. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Witham may decide that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold residence.
We are expecting to complete on the purchase a property in Witham but as a result of wreckage from the recent storms I have negotiated compensation from the current proprietors of £2k by way of a reduction in the price. This was going to be addressed as part of the conveyancing process but my mortgage company will not agree to this. Why were they involved?
Your property lawyer listed on a bank conveyancing panel is duty bound to inform the lender of any amendments to the purchase figure. In the event that you were to refuse your property lawyer to report the price change to your bank then they would need to discontinue representing you and the lender.