My property lawyer in Finsbury Park has never been on on the Virgin Money Approved Panel. Can I still retain my family solicitor notwithstanding that they are not on the Virgin Money list of approved lawyers?
Your options are as follows:
- Complete the purchase with your existing Finsbury Park lawyers but Virgin Money will need to instruct a conveyancer on their list of acceptable firms. This will inevitably rack up the overall legal fees as well as cause frustration.
- Find an alternative practitioner to to deal with the conveyancing, remembering to check they are Convince your conveyancer to use their best endeavours to join the Virgin Money conveyancing panel
I currently have a mortgage with Yorkshire BS for my property in Finsbury Park. Conveyancing has been completed a year ago. If I am intending to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Yorkshire BS?
You must advise Yorkshire BS before renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Yorkshire BS’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Yorkshire BS directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel lawyer.
After weeks of negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in Finsbury Park. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their property lawyer. I paid an advanced payment of £175. A few days later, the lawyer called me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Leeds Building Society 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 Leeds Building Society 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.
Yorkshire BS have agreed my mortgage in principle, my bid on a house in Finsbury Park has been agreed to, what are the next steps?
The property agent will need to be informed of your conveyancing practitioner's details (be sure the conveyancing practitioners are on the bank’s panel). Contact Yorkshire BS or your financial adviser and complete any outstanding paperwork. Yorkshire BS will sellect a valuer who will get in touch with the selling agent or seller to schedule a slot for the valuation to take place. Once carried out (assuming no problems) it takes approximately a week for the mortgage offer to be issued. Yorkshire BS will send the offer to you and your conveyancing practitioners. The transaction will then take it’s course according the nature and complexity of the conveyancing in Finsbury Park.
My wife and I purchased a 4 bedroom Victorian house in Finsbury Park. Conveyancing lawyer acted for me and Leeds Building Society. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are two entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold under the exact same property. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You should assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for 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 Finsbury Park and other areas of 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 buyers. You can also check the position with the conveyancing practitioner who conducted the purchase.
Due to the encouragement of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a house in Finsbury Park in advance of appointing conveyancers. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold element to the property. My surveyor has said that some lenders will refuse to give a mortgage on this type of house.
It varies from the lender to lender. HSBC has different requirements from Birmingham Midshires. Should you wish to call us we can check with the relevant lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Finsbury Park. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in Finsbury Park especially if they regularly deal with such properties in Finsbury Park.
Why can't I complete my conveyancing in Finsbury Park on Good Friday?
Because on completion the sale price needs to be transferred electronically between the banks of the purchaser and owner’s property lawyer and at present this can only occur on a working day. So you can't complete on a saturday or sunday either.