My husband and I are purchasing a 2 bedroom apartment in South Hackney with a mortgage. We like our South Hackney conveyancer, however the bank says she’s not on their "panel". We have to appoint one of the bank panel conveyancing practices or keep our South Hackney conveyancer and pay for one of their panel lawyers to represent them. This feels very unfair; is there anything we can do?
No, not really. Your mortgage offer is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the lender’s conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. A further alternative is for your South Hackney conveyancing solicitor to apply to be on the conveyancing panel.
Should conveyancers ask for an advanced payment for conveyancing in South Hackney?
Where you are retaining lawyers for conveyancing in South Hackney your lawyer will ask you put them with funds to cover the search fees. Ordinarily this is asked for to cover the fees of the Local Authority Search. If any deposit is as part of the sale price then this will be required immediately before contracts are exchanged. Any further balance that is due should be transferred shortly before completion.
When it comes to lenders such as Co-operative, do South Hackney conveyancers incur a yearly amount to be on the conveyancing panel?
We are not aware of any bank fees to register on their list of approved firms, although some do charge an administration fee to deal with the processing of the conveyancing panel submission.
Is it the case that all South Hackney solicitors on the HSBC conveyancing panel are regulated by the SRA?
As solicitors, in order to be on the HSBC conveyancing panel they would need to be overseen by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. The majority of lenders do allow licenced conveyancers on their panel and in such a situation the practice would be overseen by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.
The mortgage over my property is with Santander for my property in South Hackney. Conveyancing has been completed some time ago. Should I wish 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 Santander?
Your original mortgage agreement with Santander will provide that you need their approval prior to renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Santander’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 Santander directly. You need not do this via a Santander conveyancing panel solicitor.
I own a renovated Georgian house in South Hackney. Conveyancing lawyer represented me and Clydesdale. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are two entries: the first freehold, the second leasehold under the matching property. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You need to 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 proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in South Hackney 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 lenders. You can also question the situation with the conveyancing lawyer who conducted the purchase.
I need to instruct a conveyancing solicitor for leasehold conveyancing in South Hackney. I happened to chance upon a site which seems to have the perfect offering If there is a chance to get all the legals done via web that would be ideal. Do I need to be wary? What are the potential pitfalls?
As usual with these online conveyancers you need to read ALL the small print - did you notice the extra charge for dealing with the mortgage?