My fiance and I are looking to purchase a flat in Eye and are in fact using a Eye conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Yorkshire Building Society have this morning contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Eye lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Eye lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
My partner and I are buying a newly constructed flat in Eye and my solicitor is informing me that she has to the lender to disclose incentives from the builder. 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 lawyer. A precondition to being on a lender panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
Various online forums that I have come across warn that are a common cause of delay in Eye house deals. Is this right?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) has noted the findings of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not feature amongst the top 10 causes of hindrances in the conveyancing process. Searches are not likely to feature in any holding up conveyancing in Eye.
I have todaybeen informed that Arc property Solicitors have closed. They carried out my conveyancing in Eye for a purchase of a leasehold apartment 12 months ago. How can I check that the property is registered correctly in the name of the previous owner?
The quickest way to see if the premises is in your name, you can make a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Eye conveyancing specialists.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a ground for flat up to £245,000 and identified one near me in Eye I like with amenity areas and station nearby, however it only has 61 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Eye suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a short lease?
If you need a mortgage that many years will be an issue. Discount the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current owner has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer concerning this.
My brother-in-law has suggested I instruct a conveyancing solicitor in Eye. I I would like to check if they are on the lender's conveyancing panel. Could you advise?
You should call the conveyancer to check if they are on the bank's panel. Alternatively please call us and we can investigate and revert. Should the firm not be on the conveyancing panel we we can help find a quality conveyancing solicitor in Eye on the approved list for your mortgage company.