My husband and I are planning to acquire a home in Strawberry Hill and are in fact using a Strawberry Hill conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Skipton Building Society have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Strawberry Hill solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer 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 lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Strawberry Hill solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
Can you explain why leasehold purchase conveyancing in Strawberry Hill is more expensive?
Strawberry Hill leasehold conveyancing transactions usually involve additional investigations than freeholds including investigating the Lease, liaising with the Landlord such as serving appropriate notices on the Landlord or managing agent, obtaining up-to-date service charge and management information, obtaining Landlord’s consents and reviewing management accounts and formation documents.
My Conveyancer in Strawberry Hill is not on the Alliance & Leicester Approved Panel. Is it possible for me to retain my prefered solicitor even though they are not on the Alliance & Leicester panel of approved conveyancing solicitors?
Your options are as follows:
- Carry on with your existing Strawberry Hill lawyers but Alliance & Leicester will need to use a conveyancer on their list of acceptable firms. This will result in additional total legal charges as well as result in frustration.
- Find an alternative practitioner to act in the conveyancing, obviously checking they are on the Alliance & Leicester panel
Me and my partner are purchasing a house in Strawberry Hill. I might seem paranoid but how we can trust a conveyancer? At some point we will need to put money into their account. What is the protection we have from them run away with our money?
Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.
Can I be sure that the Strawberry Hill conveyancing solicitor on the Principality panel is any good?
When it comes to conveyancing in Strawberry Hill getting recommendations is a sensible starting point. Before you go ahead, check if they offer a no sale no fee offer. Also, you often get what you pay for - a firm which quotes more, will often provide a better service than one which is cheap as chips. We would always advocate that you speak with the solicitor handling your conveyancing.
Our offer on a house in Strawberry Hill has been agreed to, but there is a chain. The vendors have placed an offer on on an apartment, but it’s not been accepted yet, and are looking at other apartments in the pipeline. I have selected a nearby conveyancing solicitor in Strawberry Hill. What should be my next step? At what point do I apply for the mortgage with RBS?
It is usual to have concerns where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket prematurely (home loan application is approx one thousand pounds, then valuation, Strawberry Hill conveyancing search charges, etc). The first course of action is to ensure that your lawyer is on the RBS conveyancing panel. Regarding the next phase this very much dictated by the circumstances of your transaction, attraction to the property and on the state of the market. In a hot market many purchasers will apply for the mortgage with RBS and pay for the valuation and only if it was satisfactory would they pay their lawyer to proceed with searches.
I'm purchasing my first flat in Strawberry Hill with the aid of help to buy. The builders would not move on the price so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The sale representative suggested that I not to tell my conveyancer about the side-deal as it would jeopardize my loan with Britannia. Is this normal?.
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.