My wife and I are hoping to purchase a house in Barnsley and are in fact using a Barnsley conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. The Royal Bank of Scotland have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Barnsley conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
If you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your lender 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Barnsley solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
My wife and I are selling our property in Barnsley and according to the buyers it appears that there is a risk of it being constructed land that was not decontaminated. Any high street Barnsley lawyer would know this is not the case. For the life of me I don't know why the buyers are using a nationwide conveyancing firm rather than a conveyancing solicitor in Barnsley. Having lived in Barnsley for three years we know of no issue. Do we contact our local Authority to seek clarification need.
It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing firm currently acting for you. Are they able to advise? You need to check with 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 life insurance to cover that same illness)
I have recentlyfound out that Stirling Law have been shut down. They carried out my conveyancing in Barnsley for a purchase of a freehold house 9 months ago. How can I check that my home is in my name in the name of the previous owner?
The quickest way to check if the premises is in your name, you can make a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Barnsley conveyancing specialists.
I am purchasing a new build house in Barnsley benefiting from help to buy. The sellers would not budge the amount so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The estate agent suggested that I not disclose to my solicitor about the extras as it will jeopardize my mortgage 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.
I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold element on a house I have offered on two weeks back in what should have been a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. Barnsley is the location of the property. Can you offer any assistance?
Flying freeholds in Barnsley are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Barnsley you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Barnsley may ascertain that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold premises.
We're FTB’s - agreed a price, but the estate agent has warned us that the vendor will only move forward if we instruct the agent's chosen conveyancers as they are insisting on an ‘expedited deal’. My instinct tells me that we should use a high street solicitor accustomed to conveyancing in Barnsley
We suspect that the seller is not behind this requirement. If they desire ‘a quick sale', alienating a motivated buyer is is going to put the whole deal at risk. Avoid the agents and go straight to the owners and make the point that (a)you are keen to buy (b)you are ready to go, with finances in place © you are unencumbered (d) you intend to proceed fast (e)but you will continue to instruct your preferred Barnsley conveyancing firm - as opposed tothe ones that will provide their negotiator at the agency a commission or achieve conveyancing thresholds demanded by head office.