My husband and I are planning to purchase a house in Middlesbrough and are in fact using a Middlesbrough conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. National Westminster Bank have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Middlesbrough conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is normal 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 property lawyer should contact your bank 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 Middlesbrough lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
Me and my partner are soon to complete on the purchase of a property in Middlesbrough but as a consequence of damage from a small fire at the property I have was able negotiate reparation from the vendor of £2k by way of a deduction in the price. This was going to be dealt with as part of the conveyancing process but Co-operative are not allowing this. Should they have been approached?
Your lawyer that is on a Co-operative approved list is required to advise Co-operative of any variations to the purchase price. If you were to refuse your conveyancer to disclose the price change to Co-operative then they would have to discontinue acting for you. In addition, Co-operative and you would have to appoint a new solicitor for your conveyancing in Middlesbrough.
Are the Middlesbrough conveyancing solicitors identified as being on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel, together with their details provided by Virgin Money?
Middlesbrough conveyancing firms themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Virgin Money directly.
What is the optimum way to find out if the solicitor handling my conveyancing in Middlesbrough is on the mortgage lender’sapproved panel? I am looking to avoid the situation of having one lawyer for me and one for Yorkshire Building Society thus paying £175.00 in another set of legal fees.
You should make use of the find a conveyancing panel solicitor tool on this site. Pick the mortgage company and type ‘Middlesbrough’ or your preferred area and you will discover numerous solicitors offices in Middlesbrough or nearest you.
I'm purchasing a new build house in Middlesbrough with a mortgage from Alliance & Leicester . The sellers would not move on the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of fixtures and fittings instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not reveal to my conveyancer about this extras as it will put at risk my mortgage with the lender. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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.
My father has urged me to instruct his conveyancers in Middlesbrough. Do I take his advice?
There are no two ways about it it’s preferable to select a conveyancing solicitor is to get guidance from friends or relatives who have used the conveyancer that you are are thinking of instructing.