My partner and I are hoping to buy a home in Stowmarket and have appointed a Stowmarket conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Platform Home Loans Ltd have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Stowmarket conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is normal for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for the purchaser's lender. 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 Accreditation 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 solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Stowmarket lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
Are the Stowmarket conveyancing solicitors identified as being on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel, together with their details provided by Clydesdale?
Stowmarket conveyancing firms themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Clydesdale directly.
I'm purchasing my first flat in Stowmarket with a loan from Alliance & Leicester . The developers refused to budge the amount so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The sale representative advised me not to tell my solicitor about this extras as it would jeopardize my loan with the lender. Should I keep quiet?.
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 decided to have a survey carried out on a house in Stowmarket prior to retaining conveyancers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold element to the property. Our surveyor advised that some mortgage companies may refuse to grant a loan on such a home.
It depends who your proposed lender is. HSBC has different instructions from Nationwide. If you contact us we can look into this further with the relevant mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Stowmarket. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.
I'm refinancing my current property to a BTL mortgage with The Royal Bank of Scotland and intend to use the remaining equity as a down payment on further house. The location we are looking at is Stowmarket. Will your conveyancers be able to act for the two mortgage companies and link together the two deals?
Do use our search tool on this page to ensure that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panels. Having checked that they are your lawyer should be able to connect the two deals but you should have a chat with you lawyer and make apparent your expectations and needs.
I need to find a conveyancing solicitor for purchase conveyancing in Stowmarket. I happened to chance upon a web site which appears to be the ideal solution If it is possible to get all formalities completed via web that would be preferable. Do I need to be concerned? What are the potential pitfalls?
As usual with these online conveyancers you need to read ALL the small print - did you notice the extra charge for dealing with the mortgage?