My partner and I are planning to purchase a house in Hillingdon and are in fact using a Hillingdon conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Yorkshire Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Hillingdon solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 solicitor 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 solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Hillingdon lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
We are about to exchange on the purchase of a property in Hillingdon but as a result of damage from a small fire at the property I have managed to agree recompense from the owner in the sum of £2k taking the form of a adjustment in the price. I had intended this to be addressed as part of amending the contract yet Clydesdale will not permit this. Should they have been approached?
The lawyer being on the Clydesdale approved list is required to advise Clydesdale of any changes to the purchase price. If you prohibit your property lawyer to report the price change to Clydesdale then they would have to discontinue acting for you. In addition, Clydesdale and you would have to appoint a new conveyancing practitioner for your conveyancing in Hillingdon.
When does exchange of contracts take place for purchase conveyancing in Hillingdon and do I need to be at the conveyancers office?
Where you are round the corner to one of the conveyancing solicitors in Hillingdon you are invited in to sign documents. That being said, the law practices we work with supply a countrywide conveyancing service and provide just as detailed and professional a job for you when dealing with you by post or email. The executing of the purchase agreement is not the point of no return. A signed contract simply enables the solicitor to officially exchange when the time is right, which is ordinarily shortly after signing. The procedure is nowadays normally dealt with by telephone and can be very rapid, although where an extended "chain" is involved, since the process requires the relevant party's solicitor (not necessarily a conveyancing solicitor in Hillingdon)to be in the office at the appropriate time.
Are the BSA intent on creating a searchable register to list law firms on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel for instance in Hillingdon?
We would not expect to be advised of any plans on the part of the BSA to develop such a search facility.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly identified as part of conveyancing in Hillingdon?
Covenants that are restrictive in nature can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in Hillingdon. 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 buying a new build house in Hillingdon benefiting from help to buy. The sellers would not move on the price so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The property agent advised me not reveal to my conveyancer about this deal as it would put at risk my loan 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.