My wife and I are planning to acquire a home in St Mary Cray and have appointed a St Mary Cray conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Santander have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our St Mary Cray conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is standard 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 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 lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred St Mary Cray lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
My husband and I swapping mortgage lender for our flat in St Mary Cray with Yorkshire BS. We have a son 19 who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the flat is repossessed. I have two questions (1) Is this form unique to the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 5 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel solicitor is doing the right thing as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to Yorkshire BS. This is solely used to protect Yorkshire BS if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave. It does not impact your son’s right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of Yorkshire BS had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.
How does conveyancing in St Mary Cray differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build premises in St Mary Cray come to us having been asked by the builder to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the property is constructed. This is because house builders in St Mary Cray usually purchase 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 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 Mary Cray or who has acted in the same development.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I put an offer in two weeks back in what was supposed to be a simple, chain free conveyancing. St Mary Cray is where the house is located. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in St Mary Cray are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside St Mary Cray you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds thoroughly. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in St Mary Cray may ascertain that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold residence.
Is it simple use your search facility to locate a conveyancing solicitor in St Mary Cray on the approved list for my bank?
Step one is to pick a mortgage company such as Lloyds TSB Bank, Virgin Money or Nottingham Building Society then type in your location for instance St Mary Cray. Conveyancing firms in St Mary Cray and further afield will then be listed.
My husband and I are four weeks into a residential purchase having been recommend to a firm by the estate agent to do our conveyancing in St Mary Cray. I am am very disappointed with the quality of service. Can you you assist me in finding new solicitors?
They would need to be very bad in order to consider diss instructing them. Has your mortgage offer been issued? If so you need to make them aware of the replacement conveyancer and ensure the loan are re-issued. Your new conveyancer should be on the mortgage company panel to avoid supplemental costs and frustration. So that should be your first question of the new solicitors. The find a solicitor tool should assist you in finding a lender approved solicitor for your home move in St Mary Cray
