The Gillingham conveyancing firm that just started acting on my house acquisition in Gillingham have suddenly shut down. I chose them because I needed a lawyer on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel and my preferred Gillingham lawyer was not. I issued them a cheque for two hundred pounds in advance. What are my options?
If you have an estate agent involved then inform them immediately so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors may be able to assist.
This question may be naive but I am wet behind the ears as FTB of a two bedroom flat in Gillingham. Do I pick up the keys to the property on the completion date from my solicitor? If this is the case, I will appoint a local conveyancing solicitor in Gillingham?
On the day of completion you will not be required to attend the conveyancers office in Gillingham. Your solicitors will transfer the completion advance to the vendor’s lawyers, and shortly after the monies have arrived, you will be invited to receive the keys from the Estate Agents and move into your new home. Usually this happens early afternoon.
I am the only beneficiary of my late father’s will and I have everything in my name now, including the house in Gillingham. Conveyancing formalities meant that the Land Registry date was in August. I plan to dispose of the house. I understand that there is a Mortgage Lenders six month 'rule', which means that my property ownership may be considered the same way as though I had purchased the house in August. Is the property unsalable for six months?
The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ handbook mandates solicitors to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." By the strict wording you could be affected by that. Most mortgage companies would take a pragmatic view as this requirement primarily exists to identify subsales or the quick reselling of property.
I'm in the process of viewing houses in Gillingham and I am about to put in an offer. Is it premature to have a solicitor in place? I intend to finance via a mortgage with Lloyds.
You should start obtaining conveyancing quotes from solicitors ASAP. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and pass their contact information on to the selling agent. As you are obtaining a mortgage with Lloyds, make sure you remember to check that your lawyer is on the Lloyds conveyancing panel.
We are downsizing from our house in Gillingham and the buyers lawyers are claiming that there is a risk of it being constructed on contaminated land. Any local conveyancer would know that there is no such problem. For the life of me I don't know why the purchasers are using a national conveyancing outfit as opposed to a conveyancing solicitor in Gillingham. We have lived in Gillingham for many years we know of no issue. Do we contact our local Authority to get clarification that the buyers are looking for.
It would appear that you have a conveyancing lawyer already. What do they say? You must check with your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out life insurance to cover that same ailment)
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up during conveyancing in Gillingham?
Covenants that are restrictive in nature can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Gillingham. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’
I'm refinancing my current house to a buy to let mortgage with Platform Home Loans Ltd and intend to use the remaining equity towards another house. The area we are looking at is Gillingham. Will your solicitors be able to act for the two mortgage companies and tie in the transactions?
Do use our comparison tool on this site to be sure that the solicitors are on the appropriate lender panels. Having checked that they are your conveyancer should be able to connect the two transactions but you should talk with you solicitor and specify your desired outcome and requirements.
I need to find a bank panel solicitor in Gillingham. Could you help me?
Unfortunately it’s not apparent why you need a Gillingham panel solicitor but in any event, if you can not find one on our search tool you will need to speak directly to the lender to find out which solicitors in Gillingham are on their panel . If you do find such a firm in Gillingham not listed please direct them to our site to list. After all the cost is only one £1 a month