My husband and I are planning to buy a flat in Copthorne and have appointed a Copthorne conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Accord Mortgages Ltd have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Copthorne conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Copthorne solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
In what way does my ID and proof of funds have anything to do with my conveyancing in Copthorne? Why is this being asked of me?
Anti-terror and anti-money-laundering rules require solicitors and licensed conveyancers to check the identification documents of the potential client they are dealing with prior to agreeing to accepting their conveyancing retainer. The Client Care letter that you need to sign will no doubt confirm this. Your lender will also require certain documents to be checked. Should you refuse to provide identification documents, your solicitor would not be able to accept instructions from you.
Can you clarify what the consequences are if my lawyer’s firm is suspended from the Skipton Conveyancing panel ahead of completing my conveyancing in Copthorne?
The first thing to point out is that, this is very unlikely to happen. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have to instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by a regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit at a cost.
I have todaydiscovered that Stirling Law have closed. They conducted my conveyancing in Copthorne for a purchase of a leasehold apartment 10 months ago. How can I check that my home is in my name in the name of the previous owner?
The easiest method to see if the premises is in your name, you can carry out 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 Copthorne conveyancing specialists.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £235,500 and identified one close by in Copthorne I like with a park and railway links nearby, however it only has 49 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Copthorne for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a lease with such few years left?
If you require a home loan the shortness of the lease will likely be an issue. Discount the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for at least 2 years you could request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer regarding this.
I am thinking of appointing a conveyancing lawyer in Copthorne for my remortgage. Can I see a solicitor's complaints history with the legal regulator?
You may review documented Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) determinations arising from inquisitions started on or after 1 January 2008. Go to Check a solicitor's record. To find information 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. For callers outside the UK, use +44 (0)121 329 6800. The SRA sometimes recorded telephone calls for training purposes.