My fiance and I are hoping to purchase a home in St Mary Cray and have appointed a St Mary Cray conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Lloyds TSB Bank have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our St Mary Cray solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is normal 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 bank 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred St Mary Cray lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
My wife and I have recently appointed a conveyancing solicitor in St Mary Cray. I need to find out if they are on the Accord Mortgages Ltd approved list of lawyers. Could you assist?
The first thing you should do is contact your conveyancer and enquire if they can act for the bank. Otherwise you can get in touch with Accord Mortgages Ltd who may be able to confirm.
I need some fast conveyancing in St Mary Cray as I have pressure to sign on the dotted line within 2 weeks. A mortgage is not required. Is it possible to decline from having conveyancing searches to save money and time?
If.Given you are are a cash purchaser you have the choice not to have searches conducted although no solicitor would recommend that you don't. Drawing on our experience of conveyancing in St Mary Cray the following are instances of issues that can show up and therefore impact future mortgageability: Refused Planning Applications, Outstanding Fees, Overdue Grants, Railway Schemes,...
Due to the input of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in St Mary Cray ahead of instructing lawyers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold overhang to the property. Our surveyor advised that some lenders tend not grant a mortgage on such a home.
It varies from the lender to lender. HSBC has different instructions from Halifax. Should you wish to call us we can look into this further with the appropriate lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in St Mary Cray. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in St Mary Cray especially if they are acquainted with such properties in St Mary Cray.
My uncle has suggested that I appoint his conveyancers in St Mary Cray. Should I choose my own solicitor?
No doubt it’s preferable to choose a conveyancing practitioner is to seek recommendations from friends or relatives who have actually experience in using the firm that you are are thinking of instructing.
I’m about to sell my basement flat in St Mary Cray.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated however I have just had a half-yearly maintenance charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?
It best that you discharge the invoice as you normally would because all ground rent and service payments will be apportionedon completion, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the purchaser for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer unless 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process