My wife and I are planning to acquire a house in Burnley and are in fact using a Burnley conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Coventry Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Burnley conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is standard 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Burnley solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
Can I use your services to recommend a Conveyancing solicitor in Burnley even where I’m not purchasing or disposing of a house, for example where I intend to acquire an office in Burnley with a mortgage from TSB?
Our comparison service is predominantly used to locate domestic conveyancing solicitors in Burnley but we have recorded towards the bottom of this page a few Burnley commercial conveyancing firms. You will need to speak with the solicitors directly to see if they are also authorised to represent TSB
I am purchasing a semi-detached house in Burnley. Can I do my own conveyancing?
Leaving aside the complexities and merits of DIY conveyancing in Burnley you will have to appoint a solicitor on your lender's conveyancing panel to look after their interests. Most people therefore find it easier to let the solicitor act for them and the lender. Furthermore there is minimal cost savings to be made in you doing conveyancing for yourself and another lawyer conducting the conveyancing for the lender. Please feel free to use the search tool to find a lawyer on your lender panel in Burnley.
A friend recommended that if I am purchasing in Burnley I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
This is a search is sometimes quoted for as part of the standard Burnley conveyancing searches. It is a large report of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out important information about Burnley around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Burnley Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data concerning Burnley.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a flat up to £245,000 and found one close by in Burnley I like with a park and station nearby, however it's only got 61 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Burnley for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a lease with such few years left?
If you need a mortgage the shortness of the lease will likely be problematic. Reduce the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the property for at least 2 years you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor regarding this.