It is a dozen years since I bought my house in Wool. Conveyancing lawyers have just been instructed on the sale but I am unable to find the deeds. Will this cause complications?
You need not be too concerned. First the deeds may be retained by your mortgage company or they could be in the possession of the lawyers who handled the purchase. Secondly the likelihood is that the land will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to prove you own the property by your conveyancing solicitors acquiring current official copies of the land registers. Nearly all conveyancing in Wool involves registered property but in the unlikely event that your home is unregistered it is more of a problem but is not insurmountable.
Is it necessary during the course of the conveyancing process to attend the offices of the solicitor to execute the mortgage deed? If so, I will appoint a lawyer who conducts conveyancing in Wool so that I can attend their offices when needed.
As opposed to 15 years ago, most mortgage companies no longer require their conveyancing panel lawyer to witness the borrowers signature. It will still be necessary for you to hand over ID documents and there are still manifest benefits to instructing a local solicitor, in your case a conveyancing solicitor in Wool.
I am helping my aunt sell her flat in Wool. Does the solicitor order the EPC or do I organise this?
After the demise of Home Packs, energy performance certificates was kept a compulsory component of selling a property. An EPC needs to be commissioned in advance of the property being marketed. It is not as aspect of the sale process that solicitors ordinarily arrange. Where you are using a Wool conveyancing solicitor they may help arrange energy performance certificates due to their contacts with long established local energy assessors
Can you point me to a directory of Principality panel solicitors in Wool on the Council of Mortgage Lender’s Website?
No. There is no such facility on the CML or Building Society Association sites. Very few mortgage companies make their panel listings viewable on the web. Where you are in need of a Wool lawyer on the Principality please use our tool.
I was told two weeks ago that my mortgage has been agreed to by Virgin Money. Is it usual for Virgin Money to only issue the offer once my solicitor in Wool is approved on their conveyancing panel? Virgin Money have asked my solicitor to see a copy of their PI Insurance.
Mortgage companies tend not to not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Virgin Money to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
I'm purchasing a new build house in Wool with a mortgage from Virgin Money. The sellers would not budge the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of fixtures and fittings instead. The property agent told me not disclose to my conveyancer about this extras as it will adversely affect my loan with the lender. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.
I am looking for a flat up to £235,500 and identified one close by in Wool I like with a park and station in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 51 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Wool suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a lease with such few years left?
Should you require a home loan the shortness of the lease will likely be an issue. Reduce the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing owner has owned the premises for at least 2 years you may request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this.
My husband and I are buying a first floor flat in Wool. At the point of instructing our lawyer, they told us that they were on all mainstream bank panels. Our mortgage broker called yesterday to say that they don't appear to be on the RBS approved list. Should that be true, what should we do? Should we simply find a new conveyancer that is on their approved list or do we pay for separate representation, with RBS selecting their own preferred property lawyer.
If you are purchasing a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the buyer’s solicitors to also act for the purchaser's lender. In order to act for a bank or building society a property lawyer has to be on that lender's list of approved lawyers. An application has to be made by the conveyancer to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict conditions which the conveyancer has to fulfill. Some banks now require their panel firms to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your lawyer should call RBS to discover 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 RBS's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Wool lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another conveyancer into the mix.