My fiance and I are planning to acquire a house in Dawlish and have appointed a Dawlish conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Barclays have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Dawlish solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance 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 bank 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 as you are at liberty to use your preferred Dawlish lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
I own a 4 bedroom Edwardian property in Dawlish. Conveyancing solicitor acted for me and Chelsea Building Society. I did a free Land Registry search last week and there are a couple of entries: the first freehold, another for leasehold with the exact same address. I'd like to know for sure, how can I find out??
You should read the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Dawlish and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also enquire as to the position with your conveyancing lawyer who completed the work.
I'm purchasing my first flat in Dawlish with a loan from TSB. The builders refused to budge the price so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The house builders rep told me not disclose to my lawyer about the side-deal as it would put at risk my loan with the bank. 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've recently found out that there is a flying freehold issue on a property I have offered on a fortnight ago in what should have been a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. Dawlish is where the house is located. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in Dawlish are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Dawlish you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds very carefully. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Dawlish may determine that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold residence.
My step-father has suggested that I instruct his conveyancers in Dawlish. Do I follow his guidance?
There are no two ways about it the ideal way to select a conveyancing lawyer is to get feedback from friends or family who have experience in using the solicitor that you are contemplating using.
We are in the midst of a leasehold sale of a flat in Dawlish. Conveyancing is fine but we are being charged a fortune from the freeholder. To date we have forked out £250 for a leasehold management information and then another £134.40 for responses to queries raised by the buyers conveyancing practitioner.
Neither you or your lawyer will have any control over the level of the charges for this information however the typical costs for the information for Dawlish leasehold property is £380. When it comes to Dawlish conveyancing deals it is conventional for the owner to cover the charges. The landlord or their agents are under no legal obligation to address these questions most will agree to do so - albeit often at exorbitant prices disproportionate to the work involved. Unfortunately there is no legislation that mandates set charges for administrative tasks. Nor is there any statutory time limit by which they are required to issue the information.