My wife and I are planning to acquire a home in Carlisle and have instructed a Carlisle conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Platform Home Loans Ltd have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Carlisle lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. 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 mortgage company 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 Carlisle solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
My son is buying a house that has just been built in Carlisle with a mortgage from Skipton. His conveyancer has advised him of a delay in receiving the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. Who needs to receive the form?
The form is intended to provide information to the main parties involved in the purchase. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the Skipton conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the valuer when requested. The developer will be required to start the process by downloading the form and completing it. The form will therefore need to be available for the valuer at the time of his or her site visit. The form should be sent to the Skipton conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.
is it true that all Carlisle solicitor firms on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel are overseen by the SRA?
As solicitors, in order to be on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel they would need to be governed by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. The majority of banks do allow licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such firms would be regulated by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.
I currently have a mortgage with Skipton for my property in Carlisle. Conveyancing was finalised a year ago. In the event that I decide to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Skipton?
Skipton must be informed of your intention before letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Skipton’s mortgage conditions. It may be that Skipton will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Skipton directly. You need not do this via a Skipton conveyancing panel firm.
I have instructed a Carlisle conveyancer having made sure that they are on the Skipton conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?
Skipton will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Skipton will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Carlisle postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Skipton, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Carlisle.
I bought my apartment on 2 August and the transaction details are still not on the land registry website. Any reason for this? My conveyancing solicitor in Carlisle said it should be formalised in a couple of weeks. Are titles in Carlisle particularly slow to register?
There is nothing unique when it comes to conveyancing in Carlisle registration formalities. Rather than based on location, timescales can adjust subject to who lodges the application, whether there are errors and if the Land registry must send notices to any third parties. At present in the region of 80% of such applications are fully dealt with in less than three weeks but occasionally there can be extensive delays. Registration occurs after the buyer has moved in to the premises so registration formalities is not usually primary concern but where it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your solicitor could communicate with the Registry to express the reasoning for an expedited registration.
I am purchasing my first flat in Carlisle with a mortgage from Clydesdale. The sellers refused to move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The estate agent advised me not inform my solicitor about the extras as it may impact my mortgage with Clydesdale. Is this normal?.
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.
Do I need to be suspicious that brokers that I am dealing with are suggesting a web based conveyancing firm as opposed to a local Carlisle conveyancing firm?
As is the case with lots of service providers, often referrals from family and friends can be extremely useful or valuable. Nevertheless there are numerous players in a conveyancing transaction; estate agents, mortgage brokers and banks might all put forward lawyers to retain. Sometimes these solicitors might be known to one of the organisations as being good in their field, but sometimes there might be a financial incentive behind the recommendation. You have the right to choose your preferred conveyancer. However, bear in mind that some banks specify a panel list of conveyancers you must use for the mortgage related work in your house move.