My wife and I are planning to acquire a house in Northfield and have appointed a Northfield conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Bank of Ireland have this morning contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Northfield conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor 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 lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Northfield solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
I require conveyancing for a flat in a fairly new development (6 years old) in Northfield. The vast majority the flats are already occupied. Do I need carry out the conveyancing searches for my conveyancing in Northfield?
If you getting a loan, your bank will require some (many) of the searches so you'll have no choice. If not, then Northfield conveyancing searches are for you to decide upon. Your lawyer, will ’encourage’, perhaps strongly, that you should not go ahead without searches, but he or she has a professional duty to do this. One thing to bear in mind; if you are likely to sell the house one day, it may be of interest to your future buyer what the searches contain. Sometimes houses with no practical issues can still throw up adverse search results. But if you insist that your lawyer to proceed without searches then your lawyer will have to follow your instructions or you will need to swap to an alternative solicitor for your conveyancing in Northfield.
At what point will exchange of contracts happen for sale conveyancing in Northfield and am I required to be at the solicitors branch?
Where you are near to our conveyancing solicitors in Northfield you are invited in to sign the paperwork. That being said, the law practices we work with offer a national conveyancing service and provide just as comprehensive and professional a job for you when dealing with you electronically. The executing of the contract is not when everything is set in stone. Signing on the dotted line simply enables the solicitor to address the formalities when the time is right, which is ordinarily shortly after signing. The procedure is nowadays normally dealt with by telephone and can be very rapid, although where a long "chain" is involved, since the process requires the relevant party's solicitor (not necessarily a conveyancing solicitor in Northfield)to be in the office at the appropriate time.
We had selected conveyancing lawyers locally in Northfield on the Santander solicitor panel. They are now charging me a further charge for handling the Santander mortgage. Is this a supplemental conveyancing fee specified by Santander?
Provided it is contained in their Terms of Engagement or Quote then yes your conveyancing practitioner can charge a fee for this. This fee is not dictated by Santander but by your Northfield solicitor. Numerous firms on the Santander panel will levy an ‘acting for lender’ fee and others do not.
My partner and I are spending time viewing flats in Northfield and I am about to put in an offer. Should I already have a lawyer in place at this stage? I intend to finance via a mortgage with Bank of Ireland.
It would be sensible to commence your search sooner rather than later. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and pass their details on to the EA. Given that you are getting a mortgage with Bank of Ireland, make sure you remember to check that your lawyer is on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel.
I currently have a mortgage with Lloyds for my property in Northfield. Conveyancing was finalised 12 months ago. In the event that I decide to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform Lloyds?
You must advise Lloyds before letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Lloyds’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 Lloyds directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Lloyds conveyancing panel firm.
I own a semi-detached Edwardian property in Northfield. Conveyancing solicitor acted for me and Virgin Money. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are two entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold with the exact same address. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You should read the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Northfield and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they mortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with buyers. You can also question the position with your conveyancing lawyer who conducted the purchase.