My partner and I are hoping to acquire a property in Stratford and have appointed a Stratford conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. The Mortgage Works have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Stratford 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' lawyers 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 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 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 Stratford solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
Would the conveyancing practitioners that you recommend handle auction conveyancing in Stratford?
There are a few niche solicitors we can put you in touch with those conducting auction conveyancing. Stratford is one of our areas of in which our lawyers have offices.
We are planning to acquire a flat and require a conveyancing solicitor in Stratford who is on the Santander conveyancing panel. Could you point me in the right direction as regards a firm?
Our service is limited to being a directory service for firms who wish to be listed as being on the approved conveyancing panel for Santander . We don't recommend any particular firms conducting conveyancing in Stratford.
My partner has urged me to instruct his lawyers for conveyancing in Stratford. Do I take his guidance?
No doubt the best way to choose a conveyancing practitioner is to get referrals from friends or relatives who have actually previously instructed the firm that you are considering.
I am attracted to a couple of flats in Stratford both have about 50 years unexpired on the leases. Will this present a problem?
There are plenty of short leases in Stratford. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a prescribed time frame. As a lease shortens the marketability of the lease decreases and it becomes more expensive to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is advisable to increase the term of the lease. More often than not it is difficulties arise selling premises with a short lease because mortgage companies may be reluctant to lend money on properties of this type. Lease extension can be a protracted process. We recommend you get professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field.
After months of negotiations we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Stratford. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?
Where there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to make a decision on the price payable.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Stratford premises is 12 Nutfield Road in July 2014. the Tribunal judged that the price to be paid by the applicants for the freehold interest should be £19,572 This case related to 2 flats. The unexpired term was 72.02 years.
I am soon to complete buying a property in Stratford but as a consequence of damage from the recent storms I have negotiated recompense from the vendor of four thousand pounds taking the form of a adjustment in the price. I had intended this to be dealt with as part of the conveyancing process but my mortgage company will not agree to this. Why were they informed?
The conveyancing practitioner listed on the lender approved list is obliged to advise the bank of any changes to the purchase figure. In the event that you prohibit your solicitor to report the reduction to your lender then they would have no choice but to disinstructing themselves from acting for you and the bank.