I am getting a offer of a home loan from Santander. I hope to use a Licensed Conveyancer in Kingston Park. Does the Santander Solicitor panel exclude Licensed Conveyancers?
The Santander conveyancing panel is, like many other lenders, associated to the CML or Building Society Association, open to Licensed Conveyancers regulated by the CLC.
We are getting the release of further monies on our mortgage from Bank of Ireland as we want to carry out alterations to our property in Kingston Park. Do we need to select a high street Kingston Park solicitor on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel to deal with the legals?
Bank of Ireland don't usually appoint firms on their conveyancing panel to deal with such a matter. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Bank of Ireland list.
I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with HSBC. I assume I don't need a Kingston Park conveyancer on the HSBC panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.
If you have finished paying off your HSBC 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 HSBC mortgage from the register. HSBC, 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 HSBC has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- HSBC has instructed the Land Registry to do so
After much negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in Kingston Park. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their lawyer. I paid an on account payment of £225. Shortly after, the lawyer called me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Nationwide conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Nationwide panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
A colleague recommended that if I am buying in Kingston Park I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is usually included in the estimate for your Kingston Park conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing important information about Kingston Park around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Kingston Park Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information about Kingston Park.
I have been pointed in your direction by numerous property agents in Kingston Park to get a quote from a conveyancer using your seach tool. Is there a financial incentive for Estate Agents to market your lawyers ahead of alternative conveyancing organisations?
We don’t make any commission for pointing buyers and sellers our way. We thought it would be too underhand a fee because home movers will think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I receiving any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.
Is it best to choose a Kingston Park conveyancing practitioner based in the location that I am hoping to buy? We have a good friend who can handle the conveyancing however his firm is located 400miles away.
The primary upside of using a high street Kingston Park conveyancing practice is that you can visit the firm to sign paperwork, present your ID and pester them where appropriate. They will also have local intelligence which is a benefit. That being said nothing is more important than finding someone that will do a good and efficient job. If if people you trust instructed your friend and in the main were happy that must outweigh using an unknown Kingston Park conveyancing solicitor solely due to them being local.