I am in the market for a reasonably priced property lawyer. Do I opt for a national conveyancer rather than a high street Ealing conveyancing solicitor?
Established third party connections is an important consideration when appointing conveyancing solicitors. Ealing law firms benefit from connections with financial advisers and selling, local authorities, valuers and other law firms meaning you will move in shortest possible time. Hosting specialist knowledge of the local area is also a plus .
We are acquiring a brand new flat in Ealing and my lawyer is advising me that she is duty bound to the bank to reveal incentives from the developer. I am on a tight deadline to exchange contracts and I don't want to prolong matters. is my lawyer playing by the book?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancing practitioner. A precondition to being on a bank panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook specifications. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
We note that you have a search directory identifying solicitors on the Lloyds conveyancing panel. Do companies pay you a commission if I appoint them for our conveyancing in Ealing?
We are a listing service only for law firms wishing to communicate if they are on the Lloyds conveyancing panel or other lender panels. We do not charge referral fees to any conveyancer that you subsequently appoint for your conveyancing in Ealing.
My fiance and I are buying a newly converted flat in Ealing with a residential mortgage from Alliance & Leicester .We like our Ealing conveyancing practitioner but Alliance & Leicester says her practice is not on their "panel". we are left little option but to use a Alliance & Leicester panel lawyer or retain our high street solicitor and fork out for a Alliance & Leicester panel lawyer to act for them. We feel as though this is unjust; Can we not simply insist that Alliance & Leicester use our lawyer?
No, not really. The mortgage issued to you is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that solicitors must be on the Alliance & Leicester approved list. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of solicitors on their panels: a borrower could find one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. A further alternative is for your lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for Alliance & Leicester
I have paid off my mortgage with Leeds Building Society. I assume I don't need a Ealing solicitor on the Leeds Building Society panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?
If you have finished paying off your Leeds Building Society mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Leeds Building Society mortgage from the register. Leeds Building Society, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where Leeds Building Society has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Leeds Building Society has instructed the Land Registry to do so
I currently have a mortgage with Lloyds for my property in Ealing. Conveyancing was finalised some time 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 BTL mortgage or inform Lloyds?
Your original mortgage agreement with Lloyds will provide that you need their approval before renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Lloyds’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 Lloyds directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Lloyds conveyancing panel solicitor.
After shopping around on the internet I have found a Ealing solicitor having checked that they are on the Skipton conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?
Skipton will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Skipton will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your property lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Ealing postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Skipton, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Ealing.
We're FTB’s - agreed a price, yet the estate agent advised that the owners will only proceed if we instruct the agent's preferred conveyancers as they are insisting on an ‘expedited deal’. We would rather use a local conveyancer used to conveyancing in Ealing
We suspect that the seller is not behind this requirement. If they require ‘a quick sale', taking such a hostile approach to a motivated purchaser is is going to put the whole deal at risk. Bypass the agents and go straight to the sellers and make the point that (a)you are motivated purchasers (b)you are excited to move forward, with finances in place © you are unencumbered (d) you wish to move quickly (e)but you intend to instruct your preferred Ealing conveyancing lawyers - not the ones that will give the estate agent a kickback or hit his conveyancing figures demanded by HQ.