It is a dozen years since I purchased my house in Ladywood. Conveyancing solicitors have now been instructed on the sale but I am unable to track down my deeds. Is this a problem?
You need not be too concerned. Firstly the deeds may be retained by the mortgage company or they may still be with the solicitor who oversaw your purchase. Secondly in all probability the land will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you own the property by your conveyancing lawyers procuring up to date copy of the land registers. Almost all conveyancing in Ladywood involves registered property but in the unlikely event that your property is not registered it adds to the complexity but is resolvable.
The Ladywood conveyancing solicitors that I appointed last week on my house acquisition in Ladywood have without warning closed. They were on acting for me because I needed a firm on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel and my previous Ladywood lawyer was not. I paid them funds in advance. What are my options?
If you have an estate agent involved then inform them immediately so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Yorkshire BS 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 solicitors may be able to help.
My relative recommended that where I am buying in Ladywood I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
This is a search is usually included in the estimate for your Ladywood conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing significant information about Ladywood around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Ladywood Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime statistics, Ladywood Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data concerning Ladywood.
I used Wolstenholmes several years past for my conveyancing in Ladywood. I now require my papers but the law firm has closed. What do I do?
You should call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Ladywood of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously used, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
I am using a search engine for the phrase cheap conveyancing in Ladywood it brings up many property lawyerslocally. With so much choice what is the best way to find the suitable conveyancer for my move?
The preferential method of seeking the right conveyancer is via personal recommendation, so seek the counsel of friends and those you trust who have purchased a property in Ladywood or a respected estate agent or mortgage broker. Costs for conveyancing in Ladywood differ, so it's a good idea to request a minimum of three fee estimates from varying types of companies. Dont forget to clarify that the charges are guaranteed not to rise.