Much to our surprise we have been informed by our estate agent that my Soho the law firm I have appointed is not on the mortgage company Conveyancing panel. What can I do to check?
The first thing you need to do is to call your Soho lawyer directly. You lawyer should advise you what has happened. If they are not on the panel they may recommend you to a Soho conveyancing firm that is on the conveyancing panel for your mortgage company.
My wife and I are purchasing a newly constructed duplex in Soho and my lawyer is telling me that she has to the bank to reveal incentives from the builder. I am under pressure to exchange and I have no desire to delay deal. Is my lawyer right?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your property lawyer. A precondition to being on a bank panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook provisions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
I am buying a garden flat in Soho. Can I do my own conveyancing?
Leaving aside the complexities and merits of DIY conveyancing in Soho you will have to appoint a solicitor on your mortgage company's conveyancing panel to look after their interests. Most people therefore find it easier to let the solicitor act for them and the lender. Furthermore there is minimal cost savings to be made in you doing conveyancing for yourself and another lawyer conducting the conveyancing for the lender. Please feel free to use the search tool to find a lawyer on your lender panel in Soho.
Have just purchased a probate house at auction in Soho. Conveyancing is necessary. What are my next steps?
Given that you have now legally committed yourself to purchase you must instruct a conveyancing solicitor as a matter of priority as you are facing a pending a drop dead date to complete the transaction. An auction property will ordinarily have a bespoke legal pack. This should include the copy title deeds, local authority and drainage searches. In the case of leasehold property the conveyancing papers should provide a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and other conveyancing documentation pertinent to a leasehold property. You need to give this to your appointed conveyancing solicitor at the earliest opportunity. You also need to ensure that that you have the requisite funding in place to complete the transaction on the set completion date.
My fiancee and I are in the process of viewing apartments in Soho and I am now considering a potential offer. Is it premature to have a solicitor in place? I am planning to take a home loan with UBS.
It would be prudent to instigate your search sooner rather than later. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and forward their contact information on to the selling agent. Given that you are getting a mortgage with UBS, make sure you remember to check that your lawyer is on the UBS conveyancing panel.
After weeks of negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Soho. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their lawyer. I paid an on account payment of £225. Not long after, the solicitor contacted me to say that they were not on the Skipton conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Skipton panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
I'm purchasing a new build house in Soho benefiting from help to buy. The sellers would not reduce the amount so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of extras instead. The house builders rep told me not disclose to my solicitor about this deal as it may jeopardize my loan with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.
I recently become aware that one of the directors of the firm acting on the purchase conveyancing in Soho is an uncle of the seller. Is this permitted?
On the basis that there is no conflict of interest this is allowable. If you are obtaining a mortgage then the mortgage company may have a say as many banks have specific instructions concerning this. For example for Barclays plc as of 15/4/2019, the requirements read as follows :
