My fiance and I are planning to buy a house in Ferryhill and have instructed a Ferryhill conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Halifax have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Ferryhill solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
Where 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 solicitor should contact your lender and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Ferryhill solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
At what point will exchange of contracts take place for purchase conveyancing in Ferryhill and do I need to be at the solicitors branch?
If you are near to our conveyancing solicitors in Ferryhill you are invited in to sign contracts. That being said, the law practices we recommend supply countrywide coverage for conveyancing and provide as equally detailed and professional a job for you when communicating with you by post or email. The executing of the contract is not the critical part. A signed contract simply enables the firm to address the formalities when the time is right, which will usually be very shortly after signing. The exchange process is is usually a five minute process, although where an extended "chain" is involved, since the process requires the relevant party's solicitor (not necessarily a conveyancing solicitor in Ferryhill)to be in the office at the appropriate time.
Do I need to take out insurance to address the risk of chancel repairs when purchasing a residence in Ferryhill?
Unless a prior purchase of the property took place post 12 October 2013 you can assume that conveyancing practitioners conducting conveyancing in Ferryhill to continue to recommend a chancel search and or chancel repair liability policy.
It has been three months since my purchase conveyancing in Ferryhill took place. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £150,000 when infact I paid £170,000. Why the discrepancy?
The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the residence from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.
We are one month into a leasehold purchase having been directed to solicitors by the local agent to perform conveyancing in Ferryhill. We are not happy. Could you you assist me in finding new solicitors?
A conveyancer would have to be very bad in order to consider replacing them. Has the mortgage offer been issued? If so you will need to inform them of the new solicitor and get the mortgage documents are re-issued. Your solicitor ideally needs to be on the lenders approved list to avoid escalating expenses and complications. So that should be your first question of the new solicitors. The find a solicitor tool will assist you in finding a bank approved conveyancer for your home move in Ferryhill
At what stage do I cover the costs of stamp duty chargeable for my house transaction in Ferryhill?
Your solicitor should complete a stamp duty return for you as part of your Ferryhill purchase transaction for signature. After completion your solicitor will submit the Land Transaction application to the Tax Authorities and - assuming they have the funds - settle any Stamp Duty payable on your behalf.