My fiance and I are planning to purchase a flat in Dover and are in fact using a Dover conveyancing firm. 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. The Royal Bank of Scotland have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Dover conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers 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 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 bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Dover solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
My property lawyer in Dover has never been on on the Barclays Direct Conveyancing Panel. Is it possible for me to continue with my family solicitor even though they are excluded from the Barclays Direct panel?
Your options are as follows:
- Carry on with your existing Dover lawyers but Barclays Direct will need to use a lawyer on their panel. This will result in additional overall legal fees as well as result in delays.
- Choose a new lawyer to act in the conveyancing, obviously checking they are Barclays Direct approved.
- Try to convince your Barclays Direct based solicitor to seek to join the Barclays Direct panel
I am the sole beneficiary of my late grandmother’s will and I have everything in my name alone, including the house in Dover. Conveyancing formalities meant that the Land Registry date was in November. I now wish to sell up. I understand that there is a Mortgage Lenders 6 month 'rule', meaning my property ownership could be treated the same way as if I'd bought the house in November. Will no one buy the property for half a year?
The CML handbook mandates solicitors to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." By the strict wording you might be affected by that. How sensible a view mortgage companies take of it, depend on the bank as this requirement principally exists to identify subsales or the wholesaling and assigning of property.
I have a mortgage with Leeds Building Society for my property in Dover. Conveyancing was finalised 12 months ago. Should I wish to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform Leeds Building Society?
Leeds Building Society must be informed of your intention prior to letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Leeds Building Society’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Leeds Building Society directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel solicitor.
I was told four weeks ago that my mortgage has been agreed to by Leeds Building Society. Is it usual for Leeds Building Society to only issue the offer once my solicitor in Dover is approved on their conveyancing panel? Leeds Building Society have asked my solicitor to see a copy of their Professional Indemnity Insurance Schedule.
Mortgage companies tend not to not issue an offer until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Leeds Building Society to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
I appreciate that there are debates on Chancel Insurance on online forums. Am I compelled to have this when purchasing a residence in Dover? or Apparently there is historic law that means some homeowners living in a parish church boundary will be compelled to pay for repairs to the chancel in proximity to the church. Is this appropriate for conveyancing in Dover?
Unless a previous acquisition of the property took place after 12 October 2013 you may take it that conveyancing practitioners delivering conveyancing in Dover to continue to recommend a chancel search and or chancel repair liability insurance.
Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my property are lost. The lawyers who did the conveyancing in Dover 5 years ago have long since closed. What do I do?
Gone are the days when you need to hold title deeds to evidence that you are the owner of your registered land or property, as the Land Registry have everything they need in a digital format.
How do I search for a Dover law firm on the Santander conveyancing panel? I have wheels and am willing to travel upto 10miles to meet the conveyancer.
You can use the search on this website. Please pick a mortgage company and your location and you will see a number of Dover conveyancing lawyers locally. We have detailed some Dover conveyancing firms towards the end of this page and you can telephone them to check if they are on the Santander approved list