My wife and I are looking to buy a house in St Agnes and have appointed a St Agnes conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Barclays Direct have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our St Agnes lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 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 lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred St Agnes lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
It is is a decade since I bought my property in St Agnes. Conveyancing lawyers have recently been appointed on the sale but I can't find the title deeds. Is this a major issue?
Don’t worry too much. Firstly there is a possibility that the deeds will be kept by your mortgage company or they could be in the possession of the lawyers who oversaw your purchase. Secondly in most cases the property will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to prove you own the property by your conveyancing solicitors procuring current official copies of the land registers. Most conveyancing in St Agnes involves registered property but in the unlikely event that your property is unregistered it adds to the complexity but is not insurmountable.
I have been told that property searches are the primary cause of obstruction in St Agnes conveyancing transactions. Is that correct?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) released conclusions of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not figure within the most frequent causes of hindrances during the legal transfer of property. Searches are unlikely to feature in any holding up conveyancing in St Agnes.
How does conveyancing in St Agnes differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build or newly converted property in St Agnes come to us having been asked by the builder to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the premises is ready to move into. This is because developers in St Agnes typically purchase the land, 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 property lawyers 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 accustomed to new build conveyancing in St Agnes or who has acted in the same development.
I'm refinancing my existing property to a BTL loan with Bank of Ireland and I will use the ballance of the raised equity as a deposit on a second property. The area we are interested in is St Agnes. Will your lawyers be able to act for both sets of banks and tie in the transactions?
Make use of our search tool on this page to be sure that the lawyers are on the relevant lender panels. On the basis that they are your conveyancer should be able to connect the two conveyancing matters but you should talk with you lawyer and communicate your desired outcome and requirements.
Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my garden apartment in St Agnes.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated however I have recently had a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?
The sensible thing to do is clear the service charge as usual as all rents and maintenance charges should be allottedon completion, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially