My husband and I are hoping to purchase a home in Victoria Park and have appointed a Victoria Park conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Aldermore have this evening contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Victoria Park lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' lawyers 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 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 solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Victoria Park solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
We wanted to use a property lawyer in Victoria Park for our home move. Our financial adviser informed us that our mortgage lenders HSBC Bank won't deal with them. Why is this not regarded as unfair competition?
Mortgage Companies tend to imposes restrictions either the type or the amount of conveyancing solicitors on their member panel. A common example of such criteria being that a law practice must not be a sole practitioner. In addition to restricting the type of firm, a few lenders have limited the number of firms they use to act for them. You should note that HSBC Bank have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of HSBC Bank Conveyancer Panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago even though there remains mixed views concerning the level of solicitor engagement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry indicate that thousands of law firms, including some in or near Victoria Park only conduct a couple conveyances a year.
Me and my brother purchased a terraced Edwardian property in Victoria Park. Conveyancing solicitor acted for me and Norwich and Peterborough Building Society. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are two entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold under the exact same property. I'd like to know for sure, how can I find out??
You need to read the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Victoria Park and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also question the position with the conveyancing solicitor who conducted the purchase.
How does conveyancing in Victoria Park differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build property in Victoria Park approach us having been asked by the developer to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the premises is built. This is because house builders in Victoria Park tend to buy 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 Victoria Park or who has acted in the same development.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold element on a property I put an offer in two weeks back in what was supposed to be a quick, chain free conveyancing. Victoria Park is where the house is located. What do you suggest?
Flying freeholds in Victoria Park are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Victoria Park you must be sure that your lawyer goes 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 Victoria Park may ascertain 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.
Myself and my husband have recently had an offer accepted on a flat and had an appointment on Wednesday with Nationwide for the mortgage. They advised us that when it comes to selecting a conveyancer that if they are not on their approved list of conveyancers then we will be subject to an a further charge of £200. This is because they would then have to select a solicitor to act for them in addition to the one we choose to act for ourselves and we assume responsibility for their fees. I have requested Nationwide to supply me with a list so I can obtain quotes only from their approved conveyancers but was told that I need to check with each individual lawyer to see if they are on the panel. Is there a simple way of finding out who is on a lender panel?
Ask Nationwide what their panel criteria is for a solicitor.Then ask the property lawyer of your choice whether they meet the criteria and have they acted on mortgages for Nationwide before. If the answer to those is yes, then just double check with Nationwide. Alternatively please use our search tool and we should be able to locate a lawyer in Victoria Park on the approved list for Nationwide.