My wife and I are hoping to acquire a home in Coulsdon and have instructed a Coulsdon conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Accord Mortgages Ltd have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Coulsdon conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is conventional 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 lender 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Coulsdon lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
My partner and I are refinancing our apartment in Coulsdon with Virgin Money. We have a son 19 who lives with us. Our solicitor requested us to identify any adults other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the flat is repossessed. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this document specific to the Virgin Money conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we remortgaged 3 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?
On the face of it your lawyer has done nothing wrong as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to Virgin Money. This is solely used to protect Virgin Money if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave. It does not impact your son’s right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of Virgin Money had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.
Can I use your services to locate a Conveyancing solicitor in Coulsdon even where I’m not purchasing or selling a house, for example if I wish to buy an office in Coulsdon with a loan from Platform Home Loans Ltd?
Our search tool is mainly used to help choose residential conveyancing solicitors in Coulsdon but we have listed towards the bottom of this page some Coulsdon commercial conveyancing firms. You will need to make contact with the firm directly to check if they can also act for Platform Home Loans Ltd
My wife and I are downsizing from our home in Coulsdon and the buyers lawyers are claiming that there is a risk of it being constructed land that was not decontaminated. A local conveyancer would know this is not the case. For the life of me I don't know why the purchasers instructed an online conveyancing practice rather than a conveyancing solicitor in Coulsdon. We have lived in Coulsdon for 4 years we know of no issue. Should we get in touch with our local Authority to obtain clarification that there is no issue.
It would appear that you have a conveyancing lawyer already. What do they say? You must check with your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out health insurance to cover that same sickness)
I am purchasing a new build house in Coulsdon with a loan from Skipton Building Society. The sellers would not budge the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of additionals instead. The estate agent advised me not to tell my lawyer about this extras as it will affect my loan with the lender. 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.
I have been on the look out for a leasehold apartment up to £245,000 and found one close by in Coulsdon I like with a park and transport links in the vicinity, however it only has 51 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Coulsdon for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a short lease?
Should you require a home loan that many years will likely be an issue. Discount the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you can 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 and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor regarding this matter.