My lawyer in Kelsall is not listed on the Alliance & Leicester Approved Panel. Is it possible for me to use my family solicitor notwithstanding that they are excluded from the Alliance & Leicester approved list?
Your options are as follows:
- Complete the purchase with your preferred Kelsall solicitors but Alliance & Leicester will need to instruct a conveyancer on their panel. This will result in additional overall legal fees as well as result in frustration.
- Choose a new practitioner to to deal with the conveyancing, remembering to check they are Alliance & Leicester approved.
- Persuade your Alliance & Leicester solicitor to seek to join the Alliance & Leicester panel
We previously selected conveyancers locally in Kelsall on the Bank of Ireland solicitor approved list. They have just billed me a separate fee for the legal aspects of the Bank of Ireland mortgage. Is this a supplemental conveyancing fee specified by Bank of Ireland?
Provided it is contained in their Terms of Engagement or Quote then yes your conveyancer can levy a fee for this. This fee is not dictated by Bank of Ireland but by your Kelsall lawyer. Some firms on the Bank of Ireland panel will levy ’dealing with mortgage’ fee and others do not.
I have a mortgage with Skipton for my property in Kelsall. Conveyancing has been completed 12 months 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 Skipton?
Skipton must be informed of your intention in advance of letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Skipton’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will allow you to rent 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 Skipton directly. You need not do this via a Skipton conveyancing panel lawyer.
I can not fathom if my lender obliges me to make sure the lease term for the flat is extended prior to the completion date. I have telephoned my Kelsall bank branch on a couple of occasions and was informed it wasn't a problem and they would lend. My Kelsall conveyancing solicitor - who is on the lender conveyancing panel- telephoned and was told they refuse to lend based on their published requirements. Who do I believe?
As long as the solicitor is on the lender panel, they must comply with the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook provisions for the bank. Unless your lawyer obtains specific confirmation in writing that the mortgage company will go ahead, your lawyer has no choice but to refrain from exchanging contract and committing you to the purchase. We would suggest that you ask the bank to contact your lawyer in writing confirming that they will accept the number of years left on the lease.
We are close to exchanging contracts on the sale of our house in Kelsall and the buyers lawyers are claiming that there is a possibility that the property was constructed land that was not decontaminated. A local conveyancer would know this is not the case. For the life of me I don't know why the buyers are using an internet conveyancing firm rather than a conveyancing solicitor in Kelsall. Having lived in Kelsall for three years we know of no issue. Do we contact our local Authority to seek confirmation need.
It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing lawyer already. Are they able to advise? You need to check with your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out life insurance to cover that same sickness)
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly identified during conveyancing in Kelsall?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Kelsall. 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…’
A licensed conveyancer dealt with my conveyancing in Kelsall 8 years ago having archived my title documents but has since been shut down – What steps do I now take to retreive them?
Title deeds, as such, no longer exist as the majority of homes in Kelsall are archived electronically at Land Registry. Where you need to show ownership or are disposing of or refinancing your property lawyer can obtain up to date copies of the register from the Land Registry in any case.
If you feel there may be other documents or you have any other queries please e-mail your request with details of the transaction and documents you need to filerequest@clc-uk.org. The CLC will let you know what information they have and any additional information they may need before they are in a position to identify and send the documents to you. Following an intervention it may take some time for the CLC to access archived files and documents, but your request will be actioned as quickly as possible.