As someone unfamiliar with the Kensington conveyancing process what’s the number one tip you can give me for the ownership transfer in Kensington
You may not hear this from too many lawyers but conveyancing in Kensington and elsewhere in West London is an adversarial process. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there exists an abundance of room for confrontation between you and others involved in the transaction. E.g., the vendor, estate agent and on occasion the lender. Appointing a lawyer for your conveyancing in Kensington should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONE party in the process whose responsibility is to look after your legal interests and to keep you safe.
On occasion a third party with a vested interest may try and sway you that it is in your interests to do things their way. As an example, the selling agent may claim to be helping by claiming that your solicitor is wrong. Or your mortgage broker may try to convince you to do something that is contrary to your conveyancers advice. You should always trust your lawyer above all other parties in the conveyancing process.
The Kensington conveyancing lawyers that I appointed last week on my house acquisition in Kensington have without warning shut down. They were on acting for me because I had to have a lawyer on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel and my previous Kensington lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take one hundred and fifty pounds for searches. What do I do now?
If you have an estate agent involved then inform them immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers should be in a position to help.
Last month we had a mortgage agreed in principle with UBS. Kensington conveyancing lawyers have been selected. How long does it take for UBS to issue the offer to the lawyer?
There is no definitive answer here. Have UBS completed the valuation? Have you advised UBS as to your lawyers' details and checked that your lawyers are on the UBS conveyancing panel? Sometimes it can take as long as six weeks for a mortgage offer to be issued.
I have paid off my mortgage with Coventry BS. I assume I don't need a Kensington lawyer on the Coventry BS panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.
If you have finished paying off your Coventry BS mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Coventry BS mortgage from the register. Coventry BS, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where Coventry BS has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Coventry BS has instructed the Land Registry to do so
The mortgage over my property is with Bank of Ireland for my property in Kensington. Conveyancing was finalised some time ago. Should I wish to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Bank of Ireland?
Your original mortgage agreement with Bank of Ireland will provide that you need their approval prior to renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Bank of Ireland’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 Bank of Ireland directly. You need not do this via a Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel solicitor.
A friend advised me that where I am purchasing in Kensington I should ask my conveyancer to execute a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
A search of this type is usually quoted for as part of the standard Kensington conveyancing searches. It is a large document of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out important information about Kensington around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime statistics, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information regarding Kensington.
Should I choose a Kensington conveyancing practitioner who is local to the property I am purchasing? I have an old university friend who can execute the conveyancing but they are based 200miles away.
The benefit of a local Kensington conveyancing firm is that you can pop in to sign paperwork, hand in your identification documents and pester them where appropriate. They will also have local knowledge which is a plus. That being said it's more important to get someone that will do a good and efficient job. If other friends have used your friend and in the main were impressed that should surpass using an unfamiliar Kensington conveyancing lawyer just because they are based in the area.