My fiance and I are planning to purchase a house in Birkenhead and have instructed a Birkenhead conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. The Royal Bank of Scotland have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Birkenhead solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property requiring 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 solicitor 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Birkenhead lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
Do the Building Society Association intend to launch a searchable register to list firms on the Earl Shilton BS conveyancing panel for instance in Birkenhead?
We would not expect to be advised of any intention on the part of the BSA to promote such a tool.
My conveyancer has informed me that flying freehold insurance is necessary on my purchase. What is the level of cover for Birkenhead conveyancing?
The right level of flying freehold indemnity insurance should be dictated by who your lender. It would differ for example between Lloyds TSB Bank and The Royal Bank of Scotland. Conveyancing solicitors as opposed to members of the public take out such insurances.
Is it the case that all Birkenhead solicitors on the Nationwide conveyancing panel are governed by the SRA?
As solicitors, in order to be on the Nationwide approved list of solicitors they would need to be governed by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. The majority of lenders do allow licenced conveyancers on their panel and in such a situation the firms would be governed by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.
I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Birkenhead. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their conveyancing practitioner. I paid an advanced payment of £150. Soon after, the lawyer contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the RBS conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the RBS panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
I need some quick conveyancing in Birkenhead as I have pressure to exchange contracts inside 2 weeks. Thankfully I do not need a mortgage. Can I avoid the conveyancing searches to save fees and time?
As you are are a mortgage free purchaser you are at liberty not to have searches carried out although no lawyer would recommend that you don't. Drawing on our experience of conveyancing in Birkenhead the following are instances of what can be revealed and therefore affect future mortgageability: Refused Planning Applications, Outstanding Fees, Outstanding Grants, Railway Schemes,...
Over the last few months I have been searching for a ground for flat up to £305k and identified one close by in Birkenhead I like with amenity areas and railway links in the vicinity, however it's only got 61 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Birkenhead in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a short lease?
Should you need a home loan that many years may be a potential deal breaker. Discount the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing proprietor has owned the property for at least 2 years you may request that they commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this.