My partner and I are hoping to buy a flat in Southampton and have appointed a Southampton conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Birmingham Midshires have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Southampton solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Southampton lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
I recently had an offer accepted on a house in Southampton. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their property lawyer. I paid an on account payment of £200. Shortly after, the solicitor called me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the UBS 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 UBS 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.
Planning on purchasing a house in Southampton. I have received an online quote from a licenced conveyancer, which states: "There will be no charge for dealing with the Lender if you are obtaining a mortgage". I take this to mean that there will be no additional fee if the solicitor is on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel. I wanted to make sure it means there will be no additional fees for dealing with the mortgage.
They are simply saying that the cost for acting for the lender is included in the fee being quoted. It is worth you checking that the Southampton conveyancing practitioner is on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel.
I have finally had an offer on an apartment in Southampton agreed to, the sellers do however have an associated purchase. The sellers have offered on somewhere, however it’s not been accepted yet, and are looking at other flats booked. I have selected a high street conveyancing solicitor in Southampton. What should be my next step? When should I get the mortgage application with Co-operative started?
It is understandable to have apprehensions where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to incur expenses prematurely (home loan application is approx one thousand pounds, then survey, Southampton conveyancing search fees, etc). The first course of action is to ensure that your conveyancer is on the Co-operative approved list. As to the subsequent steps this very much depends on the circumstances of your transaction, desire for this property and on the state of the market. During a hot market the majority of home buyers would apply for the mortgage with Co-operative and arrange for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they request their conveyancer to proceed with the conveyancing in Southampton.
I have justfound out that Action Conveyancing have closed. They carried out my conveyancing in Southampton for a purchase of a leasehold flat 10 months ago. How can I establish that the property is not still registered in the name of the previous owner?
The easiest method to see if the premises is registered to you, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Southampton conveyancing specialists.
How does conveyancing in Southampton differ for new build properties?
Most buyers of new build premises in Southampton approach us having been asked by the builder to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the house is constructed. This is because new home sellers in Southampton typically buy the site, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancing solicitors as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are used to new build conveyancing in Southampton or who has acted in the same development.
I decided to have a survey completed on a house in Southampton prior to retaining lawyers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold overhang to the house. My surveyor has said that some banks will not give a loan on such a premises.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Santander has different instructions for example to Birmingham Midshires. Should you wish to telephone us we can check with the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Southampton. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.
My son is embarking on her first house purchase, he had his mortgage in principle. When the seller agreed the offer on the house we called the bank to progress the mortgage application. I was shocked to learn that mortgage lenders do not accept all lawyer, they must be on their panel, is this legal?
Lenders tend to imposes restrictions either the type or the number of conveyancing firms on their approved list of lawyers. Typical examples of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that lenders have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any Southampton lawyer on their panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, conveyancing is not their speciality. To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime? Probably not.