We are about to exchange contracts for a garden flat in Little Venice. We encountered a problem. The mortgage offer with The Royal Bank of Scotland expires on 11/7/2024 but the vendors are suggesting a completion date of 15/7/2024. Can one prolong the loan expiry date?
The best person to address this issue is your solicitors who should assess if they should be discussing with the mortgage company, vendor’s lawyers, property agents or possibly all parties based on what has happend in your transaction as of today.
I have justfound out that Stirling Law have been shut down. They carried out my conveyancing in Little Venice for a purchase of a leasehold apartment 9 months ago. How can I be sure that my home is not still registered in the name of the former proprietor?
The quickest way to see if the property is in your name, you can make a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Little Venice conveyancing specialists.
Due to the encouragement of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a house in Little Venice in advance of retaining conveyancers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold aspect to the house. My surveyor has said that some lenders tend refuse to grant a loan on this type of premises.
It depends who your proposed lender is. HSBC has different instructions for example to Halifax. If you contact us we can look into this further via the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Little Venice. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Little Venice to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.
Am I right to be concerned that estate agents that I am dealing with are encouraging me to use a national conveyancing firm rather than a local Little Venice conveyancing practice?
As with lots of professional services, often input from relatives can be extremely useful or valuable. Yet there are numerous players in a conveyancing transaction; estate agents, financial adviser and banks might all put forward lawyers to choose. On occasion these conveyancers might be known to one of the organisations as experts in their field, but occasionally there is an underlying financial incentive behind the endorsement. You are at liberty to select your own lawyer. You need to be aware that many lenders specify a panel list of solicitors you are obliged to use for the lender aspect of your conveyancing.
My wife and I are acquiring a 2 bedroom flat in Little Venice. When we first instructed property lawyer, we were told they were on all major UK bank panels. Our mortgage broker called yesterday to say that they don't appear to be on the HSBC approved list. If it turns out to be true, what should we do? Should we simply find a new property lawyer that is on their panel or do we pay for dual representation, with HSBC appointing their own approved conveyancer.
Where you are purchasing a property requiring a mortgage it is usual for the buyer’s solicitors to also represent the mortgage company. 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 conveyancing practitioner to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict conditions which the solicitor has to meet. Some lenders now insist their panel firms to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Accreditation Scheme. Your lawyer should contact HSBC to find out 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 HSBC's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Little Venice solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another conveyancing practitioner into the mix.