My wife and I are purchasing a 3 bedroom apartment in Woburn Sands with a mortgage. We like our Woburn Sands lawyer, however the lender advise she’s not on their "panel". We have to appoint one of the mortgage company panel firms or continue with our Woburn Sands property lawyer and pay for one of their panel ones to act for them. We feel that this is inequitable; is there anything we can do?
No, not really. Your mortgage offer is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the bank’s conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. Another option that might be available is for your Woburn Sands conveyancing lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel.
My Solicitor in Woburn Sands has never been on on the Halifax Conveyancing Panel. Can I still retain my family solicitor notwithstanding that they are excluded from the Halifax panel?
Your options are as follows:
- Complete the purchase with your existing Woburn Sands solicitors but Halifax will need to retain a lawyer on their panel. This will inevitably rack up the overall legal charges and cause delays.
- Get an alternative lawyer to to deal with the conveyancing, obviously checking they are Convince your solicitor to use their best endeavours to join the Halifax conveyancing panel
It has been 2 months since my purchase conveyancing in Woburn Sands completed. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £200,000 when infact I paid £160,000. 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.
Due to the encouragement of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in Woburn Sands in advance of instructing solicitors. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold element to the house. Our surveyor has said that some banks will refuse to grant a loan on such a home.
It varies from the lender to lender. Bank of Scotland has different requirements from Halifax. If you call us we can check with the appropriate lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Woburn Sands. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Woburn Sands to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.
Am I better off to choose a Woburn Sands conveyancing solicitor who is local to the property I am purchasing? We have a good friend who can carry out the legal work however her office is a couple of hundredmiles away.
The benefit of a high street Woburn Sands conveyancing firm is that you can visit the firm to execute documents, present your ID and apply pressure on them if necessary. Having local Woburn Sands know how is a benefit. However nothing is more important than finding someone that will do a good and efficient job. If you know people who used your friend and they were happy that must outweigh using an unfamiliar Woburn Sands conveyancing solicitor just because they are local.
I have checked your search tool I can't find the lawyer I was hoping to instruct as being on the mortgage company conveyancing panel. My lawyer has said that they are on the lender approved panel. How can I be sure given that they are not listed on your directory?
Not all firms are yet listed on our lender panel search tool which is still relatively new. Law firms are listing on a daily basis and it is probably the case that your lawyer is on the mortgage company conveyancing lawyer and you should probably take them at their word. Please do feel free to suggest that they completing their listing on our site as it would only cost them £1 a month to list themselves as being on the lender solicitor panel.