My partner and I are looking to acquire a home in Maldon and have instructed a Maldon conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Nottingham Building Society have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Maldon lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors 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 lender and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Maldon lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
Is there a search tool that I can utilise to check that the solicitor carrying out my conveyancing in Maldon is on the mortgage lender’sapproved panel? I am looking to avoid the situation of having one lawyer for me and one for Platform Home Loans Ltd thus spending £192.00 in further legal charges.
Feel free to make the most of the search tool on this site. Pick the mortgage company and type ‘Maldon’ or your location and you will see a number of lawyer located in Maldon or by proximity to you.
Do I find a Licenced Conveyancer or Solicitor for conveyancing in Maldon?
There are many recorded licenced Conveyancers in Maldon and Solicitor firms in Maldon who provide Conveyancing services We would stress that the two are supervised by regulatory bodies with both specialising in the legal aspects of transferring property. They may both also handle associated property related work such as remortgage conveyancing, lease extensions and transfer of equity conveyancing.
This question may be naive but I am new to the home buying as FTB of a two bedroom flat in Maldon. Do I collect the keys to the house on completion from my solicitor? If so, I will find a local conveyancing solicitor in Maldon?
On the day of completion you do not need to attend the conveyancers office in Maldon. Your solicitors will electronically transfer the purchase money to the seller's conveyancers, and shortly after the monies have arrived, you will be invited to receive the keys from the property Agents and start moving into the property. This tends to happen between 1 and 3pm.
I recently had an offer accepted on a house in Maldon. My mortgage broker suggested a conveyancer. I paid an upfront payment of £175. Soon after, the solicitor called me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Virgin Money panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
I used Action Conveyancing a few years ago for my conveyancing in Maldon. I now require my papers however the law firm has closed. What do I do?
You should call 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 Maldon 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 have been on the look out for a leasehold apartment up to £195,000 and identified one close by in Maldon I like with open areas and transport links nearby, the downside is that it only has 52 years on the lease. There is not much else in Maldon in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake buying a short lease?
If you need a home loan that many years may be a potential deal breaker. Discount the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the property for a minimum of 2 years you can ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor concerning this.
My partner has recommend that I use his lawyers for conveyancing in Maldon. Should I use them?
Much as we are happy to recommend a Maldon conveyancing lawyer the best way to select a conveyancing lawyer is to get guidance from friends or family who have actually previously instructed the conveyancer that you are considering.