At what point does exchange of contracts happen for domestic conveyancing in Newport and do I need to be at the conveyancers branch?
If you are near to our conveyancing solicitors in Newport you are invited in to sign contracts. That being said, the firms we work with provide countrywide coverage for conveyancing and provide just as diligent and professional a job for you when communicating with you digitally. The executing of the sale agreement is not when everything is set in stone. Signing on the dotted line simply enables the firm to address the formalities when the time is right, which is ordinarily shortly after signing. The exchange process is nowadays normally dealt with by telephone and can be very rapid, although where a long "chain" is in play, since the process requires the relevant party's solicitor (not necessarily a conveyancing solicitor in Newport)to be in the office at the appropriate time.
The Newport conveyancing lawyers that I appointed last week on my purchase in Newport have suddenly shut down. They were on acting for me because I had to have a solicitor on the Co-operative conveyancing panel and my preferred Newport lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take one hundred and fifty pounds for searches. What should be my next steps?
If you have an estate agent involved then let them know immediately so that they can let the sellers know 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 will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Co-operative 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 lawyers may be able to assist.
My fiancee and I are spending time looking at houses in Newport and I am about to put in an offer. Should I already have a conveyancer appointed at this point? I will be getting a home loan with Kent Reliance.
It would be sensible to start your search sooner rather than later. Once you decide who you want to use and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and pass their details on to the estate agent. Given that you are taking out a mortgage with Kent Reliance, ask your prospective lawyers if they are on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel otherwise they can't do the mortgage legal work.
After much negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Newport. My mortgage broker recommended their conveyancers. I paid an on account payment of £200. Shortly after, the lawyer contacted me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Aldermore 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 Aldermore 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.
I have finally had an offer on a flat in Newport accepted, the owners do nevertheless have a tied purchase. The sellers have put an offer on on an apartment, but it’s not been accepted yet, and are looking at other flats in the pipeline. I have selected a nearby conveyancing solicitor in Newport. What do I do now? At what stage should I apply for the mortgage with Leeds Building Society?
It is usual to have anxieties where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket too early (home loan application is approx one thousand pounds, then valuation, Newport conveyancing search fees, etc). First, you should check that your property lawyer is on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel. As to the subsequent steps this very much dictated by the uniqueness of your transaction, motivation for the property and on the state of the market. In a hot market some purchasers will apply for the mortgage with Leeds Building Society and arrange for the valuation and only if it was satisfactory would they pay their solicitor to press on with the conveyancing in Newport.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly identified during conveyancing in Newport?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in Newport. 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…’
Why is it not possible to complete my conveyancing in Newport on Good Friday?
Because on completion the money will be transferred electronically between the banks of the buyer and seller's conveyancing practitioner and currently this can only occur on a working day. So you can't complete on a saturday or sunday either.