The St Mawes conveyancing solicitors that I appointed last week on my purchase in St Mawes have suddenly closed. They were on acting for me because I had to have a firm on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel and my family St Mawes lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take £195 for searches. What do I do now?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers should be in a position to help.
My wife and I own a semi-detached Georgian house in St Mawes. Conveyancing lawyer acted for me and Santander. I did a free Land Registry search last week and there are a couple of entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold under the matching property. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?
You need to assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in St Mawes and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also check the situation with your conveyancing solicitor who conducted the conveyancing.
I'm buying my first flat in St Mawes with a mortgage from Nottingham Building Society. The sellers refused to reduce the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of fixtures and fittings instead. The house builders rep told me not disclose to my conveyancer about this side-deal as it would jeopardize my mortgage with the lender. Should I keep quiet?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder 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.
Due to the encouragement of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in St Mawes in advance of retaining solicitors. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold element to the property. My surveyor advised that some banks will refuse to issue a mortgage on this type of home.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Santander has different requirements from Halifax. Should you wish to call us we can look into this further with the relevant lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in St Mawes. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in St Mawes especially if they are acquainted with such properties in St Mawes.
I was pointed in your direction by a number of property agents in St Mawes to select a solicitor on your site. What’s the financial upside for Estate Agents to offer your lawyers over a competitor’s?
We refuse to offer any commission for pointing buyers and sellers our way. We thought it would be too underhand a fee because members of the public would think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not getting any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.
My offer on house in St Mawes was accepted, the seller does however have a tied purchase. The current proprietors have put an offer on on an apartment, however it’s not yet tied up, and has viewings of other flats in the pipeline. I have selected a nearby conveyancing solicitor in St Mawes. What do I do now? At what point should I apply for the mortgage with Virgin Money?
It is understandable to have apprehensions where there is an associated chain given your reluctance to be too out of pocket prematurely (home loan application is in the region of one thousand pounds, then survey, St Mawes conveyancing search costs, etc). The first thing to do is ensure that your conveyancer is on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel. Regarding the subsequent phase this very much dictated by the uniqueness of your case, desire for this property and on the state of the market. In a hot market the majority of buyers will apply for the mortgage with Virgin Money and pay for the survey and only if it comes back ok would they pay their property lawyer to proceed with the conveyancing in St Mawes.