My husband and I are planning to purchase a house in Stanstead Abbotts and have appointed a Stanstead Abbotts conveyancing firm. 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. Yorkshire Building Society have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Stanstead Abbotts lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for 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 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Stanstead Abbotts solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
The Stanstead Abbotts conveyancing lawyers that I recently instructed on my purchase in Stanstead Abbotts have suddenly shut down. I chose them because I had to have a solicitor on the TSB conveyancing panel and my family Stanstead Abbotts lawyer was not. I paid them £170 on account. What should be my next steps?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. 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 TSB 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 assist.
Will my solicitor be asking questions concerning flooding during the conveyancing in Stanstead Abbotts.
The risk of flooding is if increasing concern for solicitors carrying out conveyancing in Stanstead Abbotts. Some people will purchase a property in Stanstead Abbotts, fully expectant that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical damage, where a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, adequate insurance cover, or dispose of the property. Steps can be carried out during the course of a house purchase to forewarn the purchaser.
Conveyancers are not qualified to give advice on flood risk, however there are a numerous searches that can be undertaken by the buyer or on a buyer’s behalf which will give them a better appreciation of the risks in Stanstead Abbotts. The standard information supplied to a buyer’s solicitor (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) contains a usual question of the vendor to find out whether the premises has ever been flooded. In the event that flooding has previously occurred which is not revealed by the seller, then a buyer could bring a compensation claim as a result of such an misleading response. A buyer’s conveyancers will also order an enviro report. This will indicate whether there is any known flood risk. If so, more detailed investigations should be made.
I have been on the look out for a ground for flat up to £195,000 and identified one near me in Stanstead Abbotts I like with a park and station in the vicinity, however it only has 52 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Stanstead Abbotts in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a lease with such few years left?
Should you need a home loan the shortness of the lease may be a potential deal breaker. Discount the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current owner has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you may ask them to start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor about this.
I'm refinancing my current property to a BTL mortgage with Virgin Money and I will use the rest of the raised equity as a deposit on another property. The neighborhood we are interested in is Stanstead Abbotts. Will your conveyancers be able to act for the two banks and link together the two deals?
Do use our comparison tool on this page to check that the conveyancers are on the appropriate lender panels. Having checked that they are the solicitor will be able to connect the two deals but you should have a chat with you lawyer and make clear your expectations and requirements.
The lawyers conducting our conveyancing in Stanstead Abbotts has sent papers to review that reveal that the land is unregistered with epitome documents. Surely all property in Stanstead Abbotts are registered?
Almost 100% of property in Stanstead Abbotts is registered. An 'epitome' is basically a dossier of photocopies of documents affecting an unregistered title. Plenty of Stanstead Abbotts conveyancing solicitors should be able to handle this type of conveyancing but if any uncertainty exists the usual advice these days is for the vendor’s solicitor to register the title first and thereafter sell - this will have a domino effect to result in a drawn-out home move.