My husband and I are looking to purchase a house in Upminster and have appointed a Upminster conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Britannia have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Upminster solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 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 lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Upminster 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 you explain why leasehold purchase conveyancing in Upminster is more expensive?
The conveyancing costs for a leasehold property in Upminster is inevitably more expensive than on a freehold transaction. This is due to the extra investigations necessary in communicating with the freeholder and management company to collate the information about whether the rent and service charges have been cleared and whether there are any major works due in the foreseeable future on repairs or maintenance of the block.
The Upminster conveyancing firm that I recently instructed on my house acquisition in Upminster have without warning closed. I only went with them because I needed a lawyer on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel and my family Upminster lawyer was not. I sent them a cheque for £250 in advance. What do I do now?
If you have an estate agent involved then inform them immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors may be able to help.
How does conveyancing in Upminster differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build premises in Upminster contact us having been asked by the seller to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the property is ready to move into. This is because developers in Upminster typically purchase the real estate, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancers as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are accustomed to new build conveyancing in Upminster or who has acted in the same development.
As co-executor for the estate of my aunt I am disposing of a residence in Newport but reside in Upminster. My lawyer (who is 200 miles awayneeds me to sign a stat dec prior to the transaction finalising. Can you recommend a conveyancing lawyer in Upminster to witness and place their company stamp on the document?
strictly speaking you are unlikely to be required to have the documents witnessed by a conveyancing solicitor. Ordinarily any notary public or qualified solicitor will do regardless of whether they are Upminster based