My wife and I are planning to acquire a property in Wallington and are in fact using a Wallington conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Bank of Scotland have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Wallington solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. 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 bank and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Wallington solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
A relative pointed out to me me that in buying a property in Wallington there may be various restrictions prohibiting external alterations to a property. Is this right?
We are aware of anumerous of properties in Wallington which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to external variations. Part of the conveyancing in Wallington should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.
Are all Wallington Conveyancing Quality Solicitors on the HSBC conveyancing list of approved firms?
A selection of banks and building societies now use CQS as the kick off point for Panel membership such as HSBC and Santander. CQS membership however gives no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. Nevertheless,the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for solicitor practices wishing to remain on their approved list of firms.
At last I have had an offer on a maisonette in Wallington accepted, but there is a chain. The sellers have placed an offer on somewhere, but it’s not been accepted yet, and are looking at other flats booked. I have instructed a bricks and mortar conveyancing solicitor in Wallington. What do I do now? At what point should I apply for the mortgage with Santander?
It is usual to have apprehensions where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to incur expenses prematurely (home loan application is in the region of one thousand pounds, then survey, Wallington conveyancing search fees, etc). First, you must check that your conveyancing practitioner is on the Santander conveyancing panel. Concerning the next phase this very much depends on the specifics of your transaction, attraction to the property and on the state of the market. During a rising market some home buyers would apply for the mortgage with Santander and pay for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they request their lawyer to press on with the conveyancing in Wallington.
We are downsizing from our house in Wallington and according to the buyers it appears that there is a possibility that the property was built land that was not decontaminated. A local lawyer would know this is not the case. For the life of me I don't know why the buyers instructed a nationwide conveyancing outfit as opposed to a conveyancing solicitor in Wallington. Having lived in Wallington for 4 years we know that this is a non issue. Is it a good idea to get in touch with our local Authority to get clarification need.
It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing solicitor currently acting for you. What do they say? You must enquire of 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 health insurance to cover that same sickness)
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up as part of conveyancing in Wallington?
Covenants that are restrictive in nature can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Wallington. 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…’
I'm buying a new build house in Wallington with a loan from Coventry Building Society. The developers would not budge the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not to tell my lawyer about the deal as it will adversely affect my loan with Coventry Building Society. Should I keep quiet?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.