My wife and I are planning to acquire a house in Eynsham and are in fact using a Eynsham 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. Chelsea Building Society have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Eynsham solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 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 as you are at liberty to use your preferred Eynsham lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
We wish to acquire a purpose built apartment in Eynsham with a residential mortgage from Aldermore.We use our Eynsham conveyancing solicitor but Aldermore says she’s not listed on their approved list of firms. It seems we have little choice but to instruct a Aldermore panel solicitor or retain our local solicitor and pay for one of their panel ones to represent them. This seems very unfair; Can we not simply insist that Aldermore use our lawyer?
No, not really. The mortgage offered to you contains terms and conditions, one of which will be that conveyancers will be on the Aldermore approved list. in the past, most mortgage companies had large numbers of solicitors on their panels: a borrower could choose 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 solicitors to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for Aldermore
My wife and I purchased a semi-detached Victorian house in Eynsham. Conveyancing lawyer represented me and Birmingham Midshires. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and I saw a couple of entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold with the matching property. Is it worth asking Birmingham Midshires to clarify?
You should assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Eynsham and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they mortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with purchasers. You can also check the position with your conveyancing lawyer who conducted the work.
How does conveyancing in Eynsham differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build premises in Eynsham approach us having been asked by the builder to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the premises is constructed. This is because builders in Eynsham tend to buy the land, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct property lawyers as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are accustomed to new build conveyancing in Eynsham or who has acted in the same development.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold element on a property I put an offer in last month in what should have been a straight forward, chain free conveyancing. Eynsham is where the house is located. What do you suggest?
Flying freeholds in Eynsham are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Eynsham you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Eynsham may determine that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold premises.
Are there any apps to help identify a Eynsham solicitor on the Accord Mortgages Ltd conveyancing panel? I drive a motor bike and am prepared to travel upto 25miles to meet the conveyancer.
You can use the facility on this website. Please select a bank and your location and you will see a number of Eynsham conveyancing lawyers locally. We have detailed some Eynsham conveyancing firms at the bottom of this page and you can telephone them to see if they are on the Accord Mortgages Ltd member panel