Recently been in touch with my conveyancing lawyer in St Neots who conducted the legals two years ago asking for a conveyancing estimate based on the same type of house sale & purchase (a leasehold residence and a freehold property) of almost identical values with a loan from Leeds Building Society. I am now being quoted double. Should I look for a cheaper internet property lawyer?
The estimate does seem a tad overpriced. If you are prepared to spend time scrutinising charges you may be able to reduce the fees slightly by say a hundred pounds. That being said, if you were happy with the conveyancing the firm offered you maycome to regret opting for an an untested lawyer. If is important to ensure that the firm can act for Leeds Building Society. You can make use of our search tool to find a St Neots conveyancing firm on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel, which can often include conveyancing solicitors in St Neots.
Do the conveyancing practitioners that you recommend perform right to buy conveyancing in St Neots?
We do have a variety of conveyancing experts carrying out right to buy transactions You should call the solicitors listed to get a costs illustration.
When scouring consumer advice sites for a high-quality lawyer in St Neots, most advise that I must instruct a CQS accredited lawyer. Can you explain what CQS is?
St Neots Conveyancing Quality Scheme solicitors have been granted accreditation under the Law Society's Scheme (CQS) CQS was established to promote high standards in the in the legal transfer of properties. CQS helps buyers and sellers to identify practices that provide a quality residential conveyancing. St Neots is one of locations in England and Wales in which CQS have a presence. The conveyancing scheme obliges practices to undergo a strict assessment, compulsory training, self-reporting, random audits and annual reviews in order to maintain CQS status. It is available to solicitors and not licensed conveyancers and has the support of the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
A colleague advised me that if I am purchasing in St Neots I should ask my conveyancer to carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
This is a search is usually included in the estimate for your St Neots conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing important information about St Neots around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information regarding St Neots.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I put an offer in last month in what was supposed to be a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. St Neots is where the house is located. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in St Neots are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside St Neots you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in St Neots may determine 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 property.
Developers have suggested I use a lawyer and I've received a quote from them. It's almost £300 cheaper than my preferred St Neots conveyancer. Should I use them?
Builders often have lists of lawyers who expedite matters and who know the builder's contract and conveyancer. Plenty of developers offer an inducement to select a preferred conveyancing practitioner for this reason, any increased cost can be avoided and a developer won't recommend a conveyancing factory and run the risk of having the transaction delayed when they want exchange in 28 days. The argument for not opting for the suggested property lawyer is that they may prove reluctant to 'push' your interests for fear of upsetting the developer. Where you have concerns that this may be the case you should stick with your local St Neots lawyer.