My wife and I are buying a newly constructed flat in Stilton and my lawyer is informing me that she is duty bound to the lender to disclose incentives from the seller. The Estate Agents are hassling me to sign contracts and my preference is not to delay matters. is my lawyer playing by the book?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancing practitioner. A precondition to being on a mortgage company panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
In what way does my ID and proof of funds have anything to do with my conveyancing in Stilton? Is this really warranted?
It is indeed that case that the requirement set out by your lawyer has nothing to do with conveyancing in Stilton. Nowadays you will not be able to proceed with any conveyancing process if you have not handing over proof of your identity. Ordinarily this takes the form of a either your passport or driving licence and a bank statement. Please note that if you are providing your driving licence as evidence of ID it must be both the paper section and photo card part, one is not acceptable in the absence of the other.
Evidence of your source of money is required in accordance with the Money Laundering Regulations. Please do not be offended when you are asked to produce this as your lawyer will need to retain this information on file. Your Stilton conveyancing solicitor will require evidence of proof of funds before they are able to accept any money from you into their client account and they will also ask further queries concerning the origin of monies.
My wife and I are buying a property in Stilton. It might be a silly question but how we can trust a lawyer? On completion day we will need to deposit our life savings into their account. What protection do we have from them run away with our money?
Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.
I am assisting my mother sell her house in Stilton. Does the conveyancing solicitor commission an energy performance certificate or it is for the owner to coordinate?
Following the demise of Home Packs, energy assessments was maintained a required part of selling a house. An energy assessment should be to hand before the property is marketed. It is not as aspect of the sale process that solicitors normally organise. Where you are instructing a Stilton conveyancing solicitor they may be willing to arrange EPC’s given their contacts with reputable Stilton assessors
I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Stilton. My financial adviser suggested a solicitor. I paid an on account payment of £225. Shortly after, the lawyer contacted me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Clydesdale panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
A colleague advised me that where I am buying in Stilton I should ask my conveyancer to execute a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is usually quoted for as part of the standard Stilton conveyancing searches. It is a large report of about 40 pages, listing and detailing important information about Stilton around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Stilton 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 plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information concerning Stilton.
I am purchasing a new build house in Stilton with a mortgage from Bank of Scotland. The developers would not move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not to tell my lawyer about the extras as it would put at risk my loan with the bank. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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.
I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold issue on a property I put an offer in two weeks back in what was supposed to be a quick, no chain conveyancing. Stilton is the location of the property. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in Stilton are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Stilton you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Stilton may decide 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 premises.