My wife and I are planning to buy a home in Slough and have instructed a Slough conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Godiva Mortgages Ltd have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Slough lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' solicitors 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 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Slough solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
We are selling our apartment in Slough. Will the conveyancing practitioner need to be on the RBS conveyancing panel in order to deal with redeeming my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the RBS 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 currently.
My lawyer has informed me that flying freehold insurance is needed on my purchase. What is the typical level of cover needed for conveyancing in Slough?
The right level of flying freehold indemnity insurance should be dictated by who your lender. It would differ for example between HSBC Bank and The Mortgage Works. Conveyancing solicitors as opposed to borrowers take out such insurances.
I am the sole recipient of my late mum's estate and I have everything in my name alone, including the house in Slough. The Slough property was put into my name in September. I plan to dispose of the house. I understand that there is a Mortgage Lenders 6 month 'rule', which means that my proprietorship may be treated the same way as though I had purchased the house in September. Will no one buy the property for half a year?
The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ handbook requires solicitors to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." Technically you might be impacted by that. Most banks would take a sensible view as this obligation is chiefly there to identify the purchase and immediately sell or the quick reselling of property.
We had selected conveyancing lawyers based in Slough on the Yorkshire BS solicitor panel. They are now charging me a further amount for handling the Yorkshire BS mortgage. Is this an additional conveyancing fee set by Yorkshire BS?
Provided it is contained in their Terms of Engagement or estimate then yes your conveyancing practitioner may levy a fee for this. The charge is not dictated by Yorkshire BS but by your Slough conveyancing practitioner. Plenty of firms on the Yorkshire BS panel will levy ’dealing with mortgage’ fee and others do not.
I used Action Conveyancing a few years past for my conveyancing in Slough. Now, I need my documents however cannot find the solicitor. What do I do?
You should call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracing your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Slough of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously instructed, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a ground for flat up to £235,500 and found one near me in Slough I like with amenity areas and railway links in the vicinity, however it's only got 61 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Slough for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?
Should you require a mortgage that many years may be a potential deal breaker. Discount the price by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing proprietor has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you may ask them to start the process of the extension and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer regarding this.
I am using a search engine for the term cheap conveyancing in Slough it brings up numerous property lawyerslocally. How do I determine which is the suitable conveyancer for me?
The preferential way of seeking the right conveyancer is through a trusted recommendation, so enquire of friends and relatives who have bought a property in Slough or a reputable estate agent or mortgage broker. Costs for conveyancing in Slough differ, so it's sensible to request at least three fee calculations from different property lawyers. Dont forget to clarify what costs in the quote includes.