We had chosen solicitors located in Downend on the Clydesdale solicitor panel. They are now charging me an additional charge for handling the Clydesdale mortgage. Is this a supplemental conveyancing fee set by Clydesdale?
Provided it is contained in their Terms of Engagement or Quote then yes your solicitor can charge a fee for this. The charge is not dictated by Clydesdale but by your Downend property lawyer. Numerous firms on the Clydesdale panel will quote ’dealing with mortgage’ fee and others do not.
My wife and I have arranged a further advance on our mortgage from HSBC as we intend to carry out a loft conversion to our property in Downend. Do we need to select a local Downend solicitor on the HSBC conveyancing panel to handle the legals?
HSBC do not ordinarily appoint a member of their approved list of lawyers to deal with the formalities. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the HSBC panel.
After much negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Downend. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an upfront payment of £225. Not long after, the conveyancing practitioner contacted me to say that they were not on the Principality conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Principality panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
Do I need to take out insurance to cover chancel repairs when acquiring a property in Downend?
Unless a previous purchase of the house completed after 12 October 2013 you can take it that solicitors handling conveyancing in Downend to remain recommending a chancel search and or insurance against a claim.
Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my house are lost. The conveyancers who handled the conveyancing in Downend 10 years ago are no longer around. What are my options?
Assuming the title is registered the details of your ownership will be evidenced by the Land Registry under a Title Number. It is possible to carry out a search at the Land Registry, find your property and obtain current copies of the property title for less than a fiver. Where the property is Leasehold then the Land Registry will in most cases hold a file copy of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be retrieved for a small fee.
I am purchasing a new build house in Downend with a mortgage from Barclays . The sellers refused to budge the amount so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The property agent suggested that I not disclose to my lawyer about the side-deal as it may impact my mortgage with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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.
Given that I will soon spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on 3 bedroom house in Downend I wish to have a conversation with the lawyer regarding thetransaction before giving the go ahead to the firm. Is this something that you can arrange?
Absolutely - we would be pleased to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you first talking to the conveyancer who will be conducting your conveyancing in Downend.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - each client is an important individual, not a file reference. The law firms that we put you in touch with believe that the figure you are provided with for your conveyancing in Downend should be the figure that you end up paying.
Can you offer any advice when it comes to appointing a Downend conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?
If you are instructing a conveyancer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Downend conveyancing practice) it is imperative that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We recommend that you make enquires with several firms including non Downend conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then so much the better. The following questions could be useful:
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How many lease extensions have they completed in Downend in the last 12 months? What are the legal fees for lease extension conveyancing?
Downend Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should ask before buying
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Best to be warned whether a new roof is being installed or some other major work is due shortly to be shared amongst the tenants and will dramatically impact the level of the maintenance costs or result in a one time invoice. This information is helpful as a) areas could cause problems for the building as the common areas may start to deteriorate where services remain unpaid b) if the leaseholders have an issue with the managing agents you will want to know about it Who are the managing agents?