My wife and I are looking to buy a home in Clerkenwell and are in fact using a Clerkenwell conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Skipton Building Society have this evening contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Clerkenwell conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual 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 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 solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Clerkenwell lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
My grandmother passed away last year and as sole heir and executor I was left the house in Clerkenwell. The house had a relatively small loan left on it of around £4500. I want to have the title changed into my name whilst I re-mortgage to Santander, pay off the mortgage. Is this allowed?
If you intend to re-mortgage then Santander will require that you use a conveyancer on the Santander conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your Santander conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the Santander mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.
My relative recommended that where I am purchasing in Clerkenwell I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
This is a search is occasionally quoted for as part of the standard Clerkenwell conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing important information about Clerkenwell around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime details, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information concerning Clerkenwell.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up during conveyancing in Clerkenwell?
Covenants that are restrictive in nature can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in Clerkenwell. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’
How does conveyancing in Clerkenwell differ for new build properties?
Most buyers of new build or newly converted property in Clerkenwell approach us having been asked by the housebuilder to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the house is built. This is because new home sellers in Clerkenwell usually acquire 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 Clerkenwell or who has acted in the same development.