My fiance and I are looking to acquire a flat in Carlisle and have appointed a Carlisle conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Birmingham Midshires have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Carlisle conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
If you are buying a property requiring 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 Accreditation 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 bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Carlisle solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
It is 10 years ago since I acquired my property in Carlisle. Conveyancing lawyers have now been instructed on the sale but I can't find the title documents. Is this a major issue?
You need not be too concerned. First the deeds may be retained by the mortgage company or they could be in the possession of the solicitor who oversaw the purchase. Secondly in most cases the property will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you own the property by your conveyancing lawyers acquiring current official copies of the land registers. The vast majority of conveyancing in Carlisle involves registered property but in the unlikely event that your property is unregistered it is more of a problem but is resolvable.
My husband and I are hoping to buy a newly converted apartment in Carlisle with a loan from Clydesdale.We would like to retain our Carlisle conveyancing lawyer but Clydesdale advised that her practice is not listed on their "panel". We have to appoint a Clydesdale panel firm or retain our local solicitor and fork out for one of their panel ones to represent them. This seems very unfair; is there anything we can do?
Unfortunately,no. The home loan issued to you is subject to its terms and conditions, a common one being that solicitors must be on the Clydesdale approved list. in the past, most banks had large numbers of solicitors on their panels: a borrower could find one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. A further alternative is for your lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for Clydesdale
This question may be naive but I am unexperienced as FTB of a ground floor flat in Carlisle. Do I receive the keys to the premises on completion from my conveyancer? If so, I will instruct a local conveyancing solicitor in Carlisle?
On the day of completion you will not be required to attend the conveyancers office in Carlisle. Conveyancing lawyers for you will transfer the purchase money to the vendor’s lawyers, and shortly after the monies have arrived, you should be able to receive the keys from the property Agents and move into your new home. This tends to happen between 1 and 3pm.
I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with Kent Reliance. I assume I don't need a Carlisle conveyancer on the Kent Reliance panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.
If you have finished paying off your Kent Reliance mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Kent Reliance mortgage from the register. Kent Reliance, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where Kent Reliance has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Kent Reliance has instructed the Land Registry to do so
After weeks of negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in Carlisle. My financial adviser suggested a solicitor. I paid an advanced payment of £225. A couple of days later, the conveyancer contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Santander 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 Santander 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 am buying a new build apartment in Carlisle. Conveyancing is daunting at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. Can you give me some examples of some of the questions asked in new build legal work.
Set out below are examples of a few leasehold new build questions that you can expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Carlisle
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Please supply evidence that the form of Lease proposed has been approved by the Land Registry. Investor purchasers must be able to freely grant unsecured tenancies at market rents without requiring any consents. Please supply a car parking plan. There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. Please confirm the Lease plans are architect prepared.
Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Carlisle from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?
- A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Carlisle can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers’ solicitors. You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but you should verify this via your conveyancers. A purchaser's lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the remaining number of years is below 75 years. It is therefore essential at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale. If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s approval? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Carlisle leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord consenting to such works. If you dont have the consents in place you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your conveyancer first. If you have the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should make sure that you have the original share certificate. Arranging a replacement share certificate is often a lengthy process and delays many a Carlisle conveyancing deal. If a new share certificate is required, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (where relevant) for this sooner rather than later.
I am the registered owner of a 2 bed flat in Carlisle, conveyancing formalities finalised in 2007. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Comparable properties in Carlisle with over 90 years remaining are worth £260,000. The ground rent is £45 per annum. The lease ceases on 21st October 2100
You have 74 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to range between £8,600 and £9,800 plus professional fees.
The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to provide the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other concerns that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward placing reliance on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.