My wife and I are hoping to acquire a house in Anlaby and are in fact using a Anlaby conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Alliance & Leicester have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Anlaby lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is standard for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for 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 Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer should contact your lender 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 as you are at liberty to use your preferred Anlaby lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
I am told that my conveyancing solicitors will need to check that the building insurance when buying a house in Anlaby. My lender is Accord Mortgages
Accord Mortgages have specific requirements as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook. As of 17/6/2022, the requirements read as follows :
A colleague informed me that in purchasing a property in Anlaby there may be various restrictions affecting the ability to carry out external changes to a property. Is this right?
There are a number of properties in Anlaby which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to carry out external alterations. Part of the conveyancing in Anlaby should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.
My solicitor has informed me that chancel insurance is needed on my purchase. What is the typical level of cover needed for conveyancing in Anlaby?
The right level of chancel indemnity insurance should be dictated by who who your lender is. It would differ for example between Halifax and Chelsea Building Society. Conveyancing solicitors as opposed to members of the public take out such insurances.
My offer on a property in Anlaby has been agreed to, but there is a chain. The owners have placed an offer on a property, however it’s not been accepted yet, and are looking at other flats booked. I have selected a nearby conveyancing solicitor in Anlaby. What should be my next step? When should I get the mortgage application with Virgin Money started?
It is understandable to have apprehensions where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket too early (home loan application is approx £1k, then valuation, Anlaby conveyancing search costs, etc). First, you must check that your lawyer is on the Virgin Money approved list. As to the next steps this very much depends on the circumstances of your transaction, attraction to the property and on the state of the market. During a rising market some purchasers would apply for a home loan with Virgin Money and pay for the valuation and only if it was satisfactory would they request their lawyer to move forward with searches.
I have a renovated Edwardian property in Anlaby. Conveyancing practitioner represented me and Platform Home Loans Ltd. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw a couple of entries: the first freehold, another for leasehold under the exact same address. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You need to assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Anlaby and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also enquire as to the position with the conveyancing practitioner who conducted the conveyancing.
How does conveyancing in Anlaby differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build residence in Anlaby contact us having been asked by the builder to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the residence is built. This is because house builders in Anlaby usually buy 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 conveyancing solicitors 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 Anlaby or who has acted in the same development.