My wife and I are hoping to acquire a house in Port Talbot and have appointed a Port Talbot conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. The Royal Bank of Scotland have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Port Talbot solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
If you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. 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 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 lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Port Talbot solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
I am expecting a DIP from UBS this week so we can work out what to offer on a property we like as otherwise we only have online calculators to go by (which aren't taking into account credit checks etc). Do UBS recommend any Port Talbot solicitors on the UBS conveyancing panel, or is it better to find our own lawyer?
You will need to appoint Port Talbot solicitors independently although you'll need to choose one on the UBS conveyancing panel. The solicitor represents both you and UBS through the process.
I have a mortgage with Santander for my property in Port Talbot. Conveyancing has been completed a year ago. Should I wish to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Santander?
You must advise Santander prior to renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Santander’s mortgage conditions. It may be that Santander will allow you to rent out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Santander directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Santander conveyancing panel lawyer.
My offer was accepted on a house in Port Talbot on 31/7/2024, valuation was booked 4 days after, all came back fine. Conveyancer instructed, so all that was missing was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to Lloyds and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the Lloyds conveyancing panel. Are Lloyds entitled to hold back the Mortgage pending the lawyer being on the approved list?
A lender would not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Lloyds to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Lloyds conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
A colleague suggested that if I am buying in Port Talbot I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
This is a search is sometimes quoted for as part of the standard Port Talbot conveyancing searches. It is a large document of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing important information about Port Talbot around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Port Talbot Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Port Talbot Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data regarding Port Talbot.
My business partner and I are intending to lease a unit on the high street. Can you recommend solicitors offering no-move-no costs for commercial conveyancing in Port Talbot for under £2000?
We are happy to recommend firms who have specialist knowledge of commercial conveyancing in Port Talbot, including the sale and acquisition of businesses as well as simply property. If you are hoping to acquire or sell a shop, pub, restaurant, office, retail unit or a whole business we will put you in touch with the right firm. As for the costs these will vary based on the structure and heads of terms of the deal. Please provide us with your contact information or call so as to enable us to furnish you with comprehensive commercial conveyancing calculation.
I am using a search engine for the term conveyancing in Port Talbot it shows results of many property lawyersin the area. With so much choice what is the best way to find the suitable conveyancer for my move?
The preferential method of finding the right conveyancer is via trusted referral, so enquire of colleagues and those you trust who have purchased a property in Port Talbot or the respected estate agent or financial adviser. Fees for conveyancing in Port Talbot vary, so it's a good idea to request at least four fee calculations from different property lawyers. Make sure that you clarify what costs in the quote includes.
Our bank agreed in principle to grant us a mortgage. We instructed a local conveyancer in Port Talbot last week. Today, our financial adviser called to say that the lender said that we cannot use our solicitor as they aren't on their 'approved list'. As FTB's, we had no idea that the mortgage company had some control over our choice Is this legal?
You are at liberty to instruct any conveyancing solicitor you want to instruct for your conveyancing in Port Talbot however if they are not on the your lender's panel you would have to fork out an extra fee so the mortgage company can appoint their own lawyers. sometimes it is conceivable that your solicitor may apply to get included on to the mortgage company list of approved firms. You can use web-based search facilities such as lenderpanel.com to find a conveyancing solcitor in Port Talbot on the bank panel. You can go into your local bank branch in Port Talbot. They will know some good conveyancing solicitors in Port Talbot on the lender panel.