I am expecting a mortgage with Nat West. My intention is to retain the legal services of a Licensed Conveyancer in London. Does the Nat West Conveyancing panel exclude conveyancers regulated by the CLC?
The Nat West approved solicitor list is, like many other lenders, associated to the Council or Mortgage Lenders or Building Society Association, open to Licensed Conveyancers regulated by the CLC.
Please explain the implications if my lawyer’s firm is expelled from the Lloyds Conveyancing panel ahead of completing my conveyancing in London?
First, this is very unlikely to happen. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have to instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by a regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit at a cost.
I am close to exchanging contracts on the sale of our house in London and the buyers lawyers are claiming that there is a possibility that the property was constructed land that was not decontaminated. A high street London conveyancer would know this is not the case. For the life of me I don't know why the purchasers are using a nationwide conveyancing practice as opposed to a conveyancing solicitor in London. We have lived in London for 4 years we know that this is a non issue. Is it a good idea to get in touch with our local Authority to get confirmation that there is no issue.
It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing firm currently acting for you. What do they say? You should 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)
I have justdiscovered that Stirling Law have been shut down. They carried out my conveyancing in London for a purchase of a leasehold apartment 12 months ago. How can I establish that the property is in my name in the name of the former proprietor?
The easiest method to see if the property is in your name, you can make a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of London conveyancing specialists.
I want to sublet my leasehold apartment in London. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask her. Do I need to ask my freeholder for their consent?
Even though your last London conveyancing lawyer is no longer around you can review your lease to check if you are permitted to let out the property. The rule is that if the lease is silent, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you are obliged to seek permission via your landlord or some other party prior to subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without first obtaining consent. Such consent must not not be unreasonably refused ore delayed. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord for their consent.
My wife and I have hit a brick wall in trying to purchase the freehold in London. Can this matter be resolved via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal?
in cases where there is a absentee freeholder or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant statutes it is possible to make an application to the LVT to assess the amount due.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement matter before the tribunal for a London residence is 20 Avonwick Road in July 2013. The Tribunal was dealing with an application under Section 26 of the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 for a determination of the freehold value of the property. It was concluded that the price to be paid was Fifteen Thousand Nine Hundred and Seventy (£15,970) divided as to £8,200 for Flat 20 and £7,770 for Flat 20A This case affected 1 flat. The unexpired term was 73.26 years.
We had our home loan agreed in principle last Friday with our lender. We appointed a reputable conveyancer in London two days ago. A couple of hours ago, our mortgage adviser phoned to advise us that the lender said that we cannot use our solicitor as they aren't on their panel. As FTB's, we had no idea that the lender had some control over our choice Is this allowed?
You can actually select any conveyancing solicitor you want to appoint for your conveyancing in London but if they are not on the your bank's panel you will have to incur an extra fee so the mortgage company can instruct their own conveyancer too. On occasion it is conceivable that your solicitor may apply to get included on to the lender list of approved firms. You can use online tools such as lenderpanel.com to find a conveyancing solcitor in London on the bank panel. You can go into your high street lender branch in London. They can recommend conveyancing solicitors in London on the panel for your mortgage company.