My fiance and I are looking to buy a property in North Newbald and have instructed a North Newbald conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. The Royal Bank of Scotland have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our North Newbald lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is normal 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 Quality 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred North Newbald lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
My home in North Newbald is up for sale and I have a buyer. Will my property lawyer have to be on the Principality conveyancing panel in order to deal with repayment of my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Principality 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 in recent years.
Various internet forums that I have come across warn that are the number one reason for hinderance in North Newbald conveyancing transactions. Is that correct?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) has noted the findings of research by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not figure amongst the common causes of delays in the conveyancing process. Searches are unlikely to be the root cause of slowing down conveyancing in North Newbald.
Me and my brother own a renovated Georgian property in North Newbald. Conveyancing lawyer acted for me and Bank of Ireland. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are two entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold with the exact same address. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?
You should assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in North Newbald and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with purchasers. You can also check the situation with your conveyancing solicitor who conducted the work.
I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I put an offer in two weeks back in what should have been a simple, no chain conveyancing. North Newbald is where the house is located. Is there any guidance you can impart?
Flying freeholds in North Newbald are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside North Newbald you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds thoroughly. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in North Newbald may determine that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold residence.
Given that I am about to spend 450k on 3 bedroom house in North Newbald I wish to have a conversation with the conveyancer regarding thetransaction prior to giving the go ahead to the firm. Can this be arranged?
This is something that we encourage - we would be pleased to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you speaking to the solicitor due to be doing your conveyancing in North Newbald.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - every client is an important individual, not a file number. The law firms that we put you in touch with believe that the fees you are quoted for residential conveyancing in North Newbald should be the figure that you are charged.