My husband and I are hoping to acquire a home in Chadderton and are in fact using a Chadderton conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Alliance & Leicester have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Chadderton lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors 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 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 lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Chadderton solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
We see that you have a search directory identifying solicitors on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel. Do firms pay you a commission if I retain them for our own conveyancing in Chadderton?
We are a listing service only for law firms wishing to communicate if they are on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel or other lender panels. We do not charge referral fees to any conveyancer that you subsequently appoint for your conveyancing in Chadderton.
My stepmother pointed out to me me that in buying a property in Chadderton there could be a number of restrictions affecting the ability to carry out external alterations to the property. Is this right?
There are a number of properties in Chadderton which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to external alterations. Part of the conveyancing in Chadderton should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.
Completion of my purchase has taken place for my property in Chadderton. Conveyancing was satisfactory but I would like to complain about the lender. How does one go about formally complaining?
All banks and building societies have complaints procedures. Your first point of contact should be one of the lender’s branches or the Customer Care Team at head office. In most cases complaints to a lender are resolved very quickly. However if you are not satisfied that the matter is not resolved you can write to Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR with full details of your complaint.
I have instructed a Chadderton solicitor having made sure that they are on the UBS conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?
UBS will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually UBS 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. You may wish to consider appointing your own Chadderton surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller.
I understand that there are debates on Chancel Insurance on online forums. Am I compelled to have this when acquiring a residence in Chadderton? or I am told that there is historic law that means some house owners living in a parish church boundary may be liable to pay for maintenance towards the chancel within the church. Is this relevant for conveyancing in Chadderton?
Unless a previous purchase of the house completed post 12 October 2013 you can take it that conveyancing practitioners handling conveyancing in Chadderton to continue to recommend a chancel search and or insurance against a claim.
Me and my brother have a renovated Edwardian property in Chadderton. Conveyancing lawyer acted for me and TSB. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are two entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold under the matching address. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You need to review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Chadderton and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also question the position with your conveyancing practitioner who conducted the conveyancing.
I've recently bought a leasehold house in Chadderton. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?
In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.
If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).
Chadderton Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Queries Prior to buying
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Are any of leasehold owners in dispute over their service charge liability? If a Chadderton lease has fewer than 80 years it will affect the value of the apartment. Check with your lender that they are happy with the length of the lease. A short lease means that you will almost definitely have to extend the lease at some point and it is worth finding out what this would cost. Remember, in most cases you would be required to have owned the residence for two years before you are eligible to carry out a lease extension. The majority of Chadderton leasehold apartments will have a service charge for the upkeep of the block invoiced by the landlord. Where you purchase the apartment you will have to pay this liability, normally in instalments during the year. This can differ from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built blocks. In all likelihood there will be a ground rent to be met yearly, normally this is not a large amount, say around £25-£75 but you should to enquire as occasionally it can be prohibitively expensive.