My wife and I are looking to purchase a flat in Fulwell and are in fact using a Fulwell conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Barnsley Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Fulwell conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' solicitors 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 Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your bank 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Fulwell solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
The owners have rather assertive vendors who has recommended a preliminary agreement with a payment of 5k. Is it wise to enter into such agreements?
This kind of contract is not the norm in Fulwell, conveyancers are not keen on them as they divert attention from the main conveyancing focus and if you end up having your deposit forfeited then the lawyer at best left with an upset client and at worst a litigious one. Secondly, there is no guarantee that just because the seller has signed an exclusivity contract they will complete the sale with you. They may breach the contract if they receive a big enough financial inducement to do so because an aggrieved purchaser with the benefit of a exclusivitycontract will still be legally obliged to establish consequential losses from the breach and these may not equate the financial upside that your vendor may gain by breaking the contract, however morally unworthy that may be.
A relative advised me that in buying a property in Fulwell there may be a number of restrictions preventing external changes to the property. Is this right?
We are aware of anumerous of properties in Fulwell which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to carry out external alterations. Part of the conveyancing in Fulwell should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.
My husband and I have organised a further advance on our home loan from Principality as we want to conduct improvements to our house in Fulwell. Do we need to select a high street Fulwell solicitor on the Principality conveyancing panel to deal with the paperwork?
Principality do not ordinarily appoint firms on their approved list of lawyers to handle the formalities. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Principality list.
I currently have a mortgage with Nottingham for my property in Fulwell. Conveyancing was finalised 12 months ago. If I am intending to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Nottingham?
You must advise Nottingham prior to renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Nottingham’s mortgage conditions. It may be that Nottingham 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 Nottingham directly. You need not do this via a Nottingham conveyancing panel firm.
I used Action Conveyancing several years ago for my conveyancing in Fulwell. I now require my file however cannot find the solicitor. What do I do?
You should call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracking down your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Fulwell of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously hired, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
I'm buying my first flat in Fulwell with the aid of help to buy. The developers refused to move on the price so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The estate agent told me not to tell my solicitor about the extras as it could jeopardize my mortgage with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.
I'm refinancing my primary property to a buy to let mortgage with Birmingham Midshires and I will use the rest of the raised equity as a deposit on another house. The location we are interested in is Fulwell. Will your conveyancers be able to act for both sets of banks and tie in the two deals?
Make use of our search tool on this page to ensure that the lawyers are approved by both banks. Having checked that they are your conveyancer should be able to tie up the two deals but you should talk with you solicitor and communicate your expectations and needs.