I am progressing with the sale of my home in Potton and the estate agent has just text me to advise that the purchasers are changing their conveyancer. I am told that this is due to the fact that the bank will only engage with property lawyers on their approved list. Why would a big named lender only work with specific law firms rather the firm that they want to select to handle their conveyancing in Potton ?
UK lenders have always had panels of law firms that can represent them, but in the past few years big names such as Nationwide, have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for decades.
Mortgage companies blame a rise in fraud by way of justification for the pruning – criteria have been narrowed as a smaller panel is easier to monitor. No lender will say how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society says it is hearing daily from firms that have been removed from panels. Some are unaware that they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. Your buyers are unlikely to have any impact on this.
My colleague recommended that if I am purchasing in Potton I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is occasionally included in the estimate for your Potton conveyancing searches. It is a large document of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out significant information about Potton around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information concerning Potton.
Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to our home are lost. The conveyancers who did the conveyancing in Potton 4 years ago no longer exist. What do I do?
Nowadays there are duplicates made of almost everything, and your solicitor should be aware precisely where to locate all the suitable documentation so you can purchase or dispose of your house without any difficulty. If duplicates can’t be located, your conveyancer can put in place insurance or indemnities protecting you against future claims on the property.
Just had an offer accepted on a new build flat in Potton. Conveyancing is necessary evil at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. What sort of enquires would be asked in new build conveyancing.
Set out below are examples of a selection of leasehold new build enquiries that you should expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Potton
-
Where there is an Undertaking being granted there is the risk of forfeiture of the Headlease subject to relief if one or more of the Underlessees are willing to accept the original Head Lessee’s obligations as otherwise relief will be denied to the Underlessees. The only alternatives are the Head Lessor agreeing not to forfeit the Headlease or the Head Lessee guaranteeing to the Underlessees that it will not be in breach of the Headlease. Has the Lease plan been approved by the Land Registry and if not when will they be lodged for this purpose? The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme. There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. Please confirm the Lease plans are surveyor prepared.
I opted to have a survey carried out on a house in Potton in advance of retaining lawyers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold element to the house. Our surveyor advised that some banks may refuse to grant a mortgage on a flying freehold house.
It depends who your proposed lender is. HSBC has different instructions from Halifax. If you contact us we can check via the relevant lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Potton. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Potton to see if the conveyancing will be more expensive.
I have been looking for Potton online conveyancing estimates. Can I be confident that all the Potton firms that are listed on your directory are on the bank conveyancing panel?
The law firms on our directory have assured us via an online form that they are on the lender panel and agreed to advise us to take down their listing in the event of removal off of the bank panel. To date we have not been informed by either a bank or a member of the public that the data about a specific Potton conveyancing solicitor being on the lender conveyancing panel is not accurate.