My husband and I are looking to acquire a property in Clapham and Salph End and are in fact using a Clapham and Salph End 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. Alliance & Leicester have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Clapham and Salph End lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Clapham and Salph End lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
It is is a decade since I acquired my property in Clapham and Salph End. Conveyancing lawyers have recently been appointed on the sale but I am unable to track down my title deeds. Is this a major issue?
Don’t worry too much. Firstly there is a possibility that the deeds will be kept by the lender or they could stored with the solicitor who acted in the purchase. Secondly the chances are that the land will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you are the registered owner by your conveyancing lawyers obtaining up to date copy of the land registers. Nearly all conveyancing in Clapham and Salph End involves registered property but in the rare situation where your home is not registered it adds to the complexity but is not insurmountable.
How does conveyancing in Clapham and Salph End differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build property in Clapham and Salph End contact us having been asked by the seller to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the house is finished. This is because developers in Clapham and Salph End tend to acquire the land, 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 used to new build conveyancing in Clapham and Salph End or who has acted in the same development.
How do I identify a Clapham and Salph End solicitor on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel? I am a keen cyclist and am willing to travel upto 25kilometers to meet the solicitor.
You can use the tool on this website. Please select a mortgage company and your location and you will see a number of Clapham and Salph End conveyancing lawyers locally. We have listed some Clapham and Salph End conveyancing firms towards the end of this page and you can ring them to check whether they are on the Yorkshire Building Society member panel
Do online conveyancing organisations do everything a local Clapham and Salph End solicitor does or do I still need to use a solicitor for the final stages for my conveyancing in Clapham and Salph End?
Where you instruct an online conveyancer they should undertake all the things your Clapham and Salph End conveyancer would cover.