I am selling my apartment in Kingston Park and the EA has just text me to warn that the purchasers are swapping law firm. The reason given is that the mortgage company will only work with solicitors on their conveyancing panel. Why would a big named lender only engage with specific law firms rather the firm that they want to select for their conveyancing in Kingston Park ?
Lenders have always had an approved set of law firms they are content to work with, but in the past few years big names such as HSBC, have considered and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have represented them for many years.
Mortgage companies attribute this action to a rise in fraud by way of justification for the cull – criteria have been stiffened as a smaller panel is easier to keep an eye on. Banks tend not to reveal how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society claims that it is being contacted daily by practices that have been removed from panels. Plenty of firms are unaware that they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. The buyers are not going to have any sway in the decision.
Our Kingston Park solicitor has uncovered an inconsistency between the information in the home valuation survey and what is revealed within the legal papers for the property. My lawyer has advised that he is obliged to check that the lender is OK with this discrepancy and is content to go ahead. Is my solicitor’s approach legitimate?
Your lawyer must comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements which do require that your lawyer disclose any incorrect assumptions in the lender’s valuation report and the legal papers. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your lawyer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for both parties.
My apartment in Kingston Park is up for sale and I have a buyer. Will my lawyer have to be required to be on the Santander conveyancing panel in order to deal with the discharge of my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Santander conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their panel criteria fairly frequently at the moment.
My colleague suggested that where I am buying in Kingston Park I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
This is a search is usually included in the estimate for your Kingston Park conveyancing searches. It is a large document of about 40 pages, listing and detailing important information about Kingston Park around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data regarding Kingston Park.
I used Wolstenholmes a few years past for my conveyancing in Kingston Park. I now require my file however the law firm has closed. What do I do?
Do contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate 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 Kingston Park of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously retained, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
I am purchasing a maisonette mortgage free. My conveyancer has been supplied with with two distinct forms of photo identification, bank statement, endless utility bills. Now he requires a copy from a probate lawyer stating that the funds are in place and that it has come from inheritance and not via illegitimate means.
In today’s world you will not be able to complete any Kingston Park conveyancing transaction without first providing evidence of your identity to your lawyers. This usually takes the form of a either your passport or driving licence and a utility bill. Remember if you are providing your driving licence as evidence of ID it must be both the paper part and photo card part, one is not acceptable without the other. Proof of your source of funds is required under Money Laundering laws.