My partner and I are planning to purchase a home in Exmouth and have instructed a Exmouth 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. Leeds Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Exmouth lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is normal 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 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 lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Exmouth solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
Can the conveyancing lawyers that you recommend perform right to buy conveyancing in Exmouth?
We do have a number of conveyancing solicitors who can service right to buy conveyancing matters You should call us with a view to obtain a costs calculation.
As a FTB what is the most important advice you can give me regarding purchase conveyancing in Exmouth?
You may not hear this from too many lawyers but conveyancing in Exmouth or throughout Devon is often a confrontational experience. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there exists plenty of opportunity for friction between you and other parties involved in the house moving process. For instance, the vendor, estate agent and on occasion a bank. Choosing a law firm for your conveyancing in Exmouth should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONE person in the transaction whose interest is to act in your best interests and to protect you.
There is a distinct creep of a "blame" culture- someone must be blamed for the process taking so long. We recommend that you should always trust your lawyer above all other parties in the home moving process.
Please explain the implications if my lawyer’s firm is expelled from the Kent Reliance Solicitor panel ahead of completing my conveyancing in Exmouth?
The first thing to point out is that, this is a very rare occurrence. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have to instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by a regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit at a cost.
Have just purchased a probate house at auction in Exmouth. Conveyancing is required. What is next?
Now that you have exchanged you must retain a conveyancing solicitor soon as you will have a tight a drop dead date to complete the purchase. Every auction property should have a bespoke legal set of papers. This should include most,if not all of the documents that your solicitor will need. If you have purchased leasehold property the conveyancing papers should contain a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and associated conveyancing documentation specific to a leasehold property. You need to hand this to the conveyancer working for you as soon as possible. You also need to ensure that your finances are in order to complete on the on the contractual date .
I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with Yorkshire BS. I assume I don't need a Exmouth conveyancing practitioner on the Yorkshire BS panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?
If you have finished paying off your Yorkshire BS 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 Yorkshire BS mortgage from the register. Yorkshire BS, 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 Yorkshire BS has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Yorkshire BS has instructed the Land Registry to do so
I've digested plenty of mortgage guides, I note that they all recommend that you should get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local Exmouth solicitor - who is on the TSB conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. Is that normal?
TSB will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually TSB 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 conveyancer 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 Exmouth postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with TSB, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Exmouth.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £245,000 and found one close by in Exmouth I like with open areas and station in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 61 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Exmouth for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a short lease?
Should you require a mortgage the shortness of the lease will be problematic. Reduce the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the property for at least 2 years you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor concerning this.