Willretaining a Swanage conveyancing practitioner make the legal process smoother?
On the whole conveyancing lawyers in your area will have excellent alliances with your local authority, which can help with your Swanage conveyancing searches that your lawyer will inevitably need. It can only be a plus if they have good connections with the Land Registry overseeing your area Swanage, other lawyers in the neighbourhood and Swanage Estate Agents.
I am buying a house without a mortgage in Swanage. I have been living for the last 20 years in Swanage. Conveyancing searches are expensive. As I know the road and vicinity intimately should I not bother getting the solicitor to do all the conveyancing searches?
In the absence of a mortgage, then almost all of the Swanage conveyancing searches are optional. Your conveyancer will 'advise', perhaps strongly, that you should have searches carried out, but he has a professional duty to do this. Do consider; if you are likely to dispose of the house in the future, it will be of interest to your future buyer what the searches determine. Sometimes premises with day to day issues can still throw up detrimental search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in Swanage should provide you some constructive guidance concerning this.
I am assisting my mother sell her property in Swanage. Will the solicitor commission the energy assessment or do I organise this?
After the abolition of Home Information Packs, energy performance certificates became a mandatory component of moving property. An energy performance certificate should be to hand prior to the property being marketed. This is not as aspect of the sale process that law firms ordinarily arrange. Where you are using a Swanage conveyancing solicitor they might be able to arrange energy assessments due to their contacts with long established Swanage energy assessors
I am expecting a OIP from TSB this week so we can work out what to offer on a property we like as otherwise we only have online calculators to go by (which aren't taking into account credit checks etc). Do TSB recommend any Swanage solicitors on the TSB conveyancing panel, or is it better to find our own lawyer?
You will need to appoint Swanage solicitors independently although you'll need to choose one on the TSB conveyancing panel. The solicitor represents both you and TSB through the process.
After weeks of negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Swanage. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their solicitor. I paid an upfront payment of £225. Soon after, the solicitor called me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Nationwide 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 Nationwide 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.
My wife and I are close to exchanging contracts on the sale of our home in Swanage and according to the buyers it appears that there is a risk of it being built on contaminated land. Any high street Swanage lawyer would know this is not the case. For the life of me I don't know why the purchasers are using an internet conveyancing firm as opposed to a conveyancing solicitor in Swanage. Having lived in Swanage for many years we know that this is a non issue. Should we get in touch with our local Authority to get confirmation that the buyers are looking for.
It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing firm already. Are they able to advise? You must enquire of your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out life insurance to cover that same illness)
How does conveyancing in Swanage differ for new build properties?
Most buyers of new build premises in Swanage come to us having been asked by the seller to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the residence is completed. This is because new home sellers in Swanage usually acquire the site, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancing solicitors as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are used to new build conveyancing in Swanage or who has acted in the same development.
I'm remortgaging a house in Swanage. I can find my conveyancer's company on the Law Society's list, but I can't locate my conveyancer's name as listed on the regulator's website. Should I be concerned?
Not all staff in the law firm must be listed by the regulator. As long there is someone qualified to 'oversee' the work, the actual day-to-day activity can be conducted by unqualified staff.