My fiance and I are looking to acquire a house in Oxford and have appointed a Oxford conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. HSBC Bank have this morning contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Oxford lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Oxford 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.
I am acquiring a house for cash in Oxford. I have lived for the last twelve years in Oxford. Conveyancing searches are exorbitant. As I have knowledge of the road and vicinity intimately should I not bother getting the solicitor to do all the conveyancing searches?
Provided that you do not need a mortgage, then all but one or two of the Oxford conveyancing searches are optional. Your conveyancer will ’encourage you, no-doubt strongly, that you should have searches carried out, but he has a professional duty to do this. Do consider; if you are going to sell the house in the future, it will be of interest to your prospective purchaser what the searches disclose. There are plenty of instances where houses with no practical issues can still show up detrimental search results. A competent conveyancing solicitor in Oxford will be able to give you some constructive advice here.
What does my ID and proof of funds have anything to do with my conveyancing in Oxford? Is this really necessary?
It is indeed that case that these requests have nothing to do with conveyancing in Oxford. However these days you will not be able to complete any conveyancing transaction without first submitting evidence of your identity. This usually takes the form of a either your passport or driving licence and a council tax bill. Please note that if you are providing your driving licence as proof of ID it needs to be both the paper part as well as the photo card part, one is not sufficient in the absence of the other.
Verification of the source of money is mandated under Money Laundering Regulations. Please do not be offended when you are asked to produce this as your conveyancing solicitor must have this information on file. Your Oxford conveyancing practitioner will require evidence of proof of funds before they are able to accept any monies from you into their client account and they will also ask additional questions regarding the origin of funds.
Due to the input of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a house in Oxford before appointing lawyers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold aspect to the house. The surveyor has said that some mortgage companies may refuse to issue a loan on this type of property.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Lloyds has different requirements for example to Halifax. If you contact us we can investigate further via the appropriate lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Oxford. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.
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I own a leasehold flat in Oxford. Conveyancing and Aldermore mortgage organised. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1993. The conveyancing practitioner in Oxford who previously acted has long since retired. Do I pay?
First contact HMLR to make sure that this person is in fact the new freeholder. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Oxford conveyancing practitioner to do this as it can be done on-line for a few pound. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.
Oxford Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Questions you should consider before buying
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Where a Oxford lease has fewer than 80 years it will impact the salability of the apartment. Check with your lender that they are willing to to proceed given the lease term. A short lease means that you will most likely require a lease extension sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of how much this will be. Remember, in most cases you will need to own the property for 24 months in order to be entitled to extend the lease. You should want to discover as much as possible concerning the managing agents as they will impact your use and enjoyment of the property. As the owner of a leasehold property you are often at the mercy of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to day to day issues such as the cleanliness of the common parts. You should not be shy to ask other tenants if they are happy with them. Finally, investigate as to the dates that the service charges are due to the appropriate party and specifically how they are spending the funds. How much is the service charge and ground rent on the apartment?