I am hoping to receive a mortgage offer from Nat West. I intend to retain the legal services of a Licensed Conveyancer in Brentwood. Does the Nat West Conveyancing panel exclude Licensed Conveyancers?
The Nat West conveyancing panel is, like many other lenders, represented by the Council or Mortgage Lenders or Building Society Association, open to Licensed Conveyancers regulated by the CLC.
The Brentwood conveyancing lawyers that I appointed last week on my house acquisition in Brentwood have without warning shut down. I only went with them because I needed a lawyer on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel and my preferred Brentwood lawyer was not. I wrote them a cheque for £250 in advance. What are my options?
If you have an estate agent involved then let them know immediately so that they advise the vendors 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 Leeds Building Society 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 should be in a position to help.
I know that there are debates on Chancel Insurance on online forums. Am I compelled to have this when buying a property in Brentwood? or Apparently there is an ancient law that could mean that owners of property residing in a parish church boundary will be compelled to pay for maintenance towards the chancel in proximity to the church. Is this suitable for conveyancing in Brentwood?
Unless a prior purchase of the house completed after 12 October 2013 you could assume that lawyers handling conveyancing in Brentwood to continue to advocate a chancel search and or insurance against a claim.
I am purchasing a new build house in Brentwood with the aid of help to buy. The sellers refused to move on the price so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The property agent advised me not inform my solicitor about the deal as it could affect my loan with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder 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.
Should I be wary about third parties that I am dealing with are encouraging me to use an internet conveyancing firm rather than a High Street Brentwood conveyancing firm?
As is the case with many professional services, often input from relatives can be worth their weight in gold. But there are many players in a conveyancing transaction; estate agents, financial adviser and banks might all suggest solicitors to choose. Sometimes the lawyers might be known to one of the organisations as being good in their field, but sometimes there is an underlying financial incentive behind the recommendation. You have the discretion to choose your own lawyer. You need to be aware that many lenders operate an approved list of solicitors you must use for the mortgage aspect of your house move.
I am thinking of appointing a conveyancing lawyer in Brentwood for my home move. Can I check a firm’s complaints history with the profession’s regulator?
Members of the public can search for documented Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) decisions arising from investigations from 2008 onwards. Go to Check a solicitor's record. For details about the period before 1 January 2008, or to check a solicitors record, call 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and 09.30 - 18.00 Tuesday. International callers, dial +44 (0)121 329 6800. The regulator sometimes monitor telephone calls for training reasons.