My husband and I are hoping to acquire a home in East Bergholt and are in fact using a East Bergholt conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Santander have this evening contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our East Bergholt solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
If you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional 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 Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer should contact your bank 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 East Bergholt solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
we are a couple who wish to acquire a newly converted apartment in East Bergholt with a mortgage from Halifax.We use our East Bergholt conveyancing solicitor but Halifax advised that his firm is not listed on their approved list of firms. It seems we are left with no choice but to instruct a Halifax panel lawyer or retain our preferred solicitor and pay for one of their panel ones to represent them. This seems very unfair; Can we not simply insist that Halifax use our lawyer?
Unfortunately,no. The home loan issued to you is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that conveyancers needs to be on the Halifax approved list. Until recently, most mortgage companies had large numbers of solicitors on their panels: a borrower could find 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 solicitors to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for Halifax
Do I need to take out insurance to protect me from financial exposure to chancel repairs when acquiring a residence in East Bergholt?
Unless a prior acquisition of the house took place after 12 October 2013 you may take it that solicitors conducting conveyancing in East Bergholt to remain recommending a chancel search and or insurance against a claim.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly identified as part of conveyancing in East Bergholt?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in East Bergholt. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’
Over the last few months I have been searching for a flat up to £235,500 and identified one close by in East Bergholt I like with open areas and transport links in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 51 years on the lease. There is not much else in East Bergholt in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a short lease?
Should you require a mortgage the shortness of the lease may be an issue. Reduce the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you can request that they start the process of the extension 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 matter.