My wife and I are hoping to acquire a home in Woolwich and have instructed a Woolwich conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Yorkshire Building Society have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Woolwich conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer 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 lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Woolwich lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
I am in a contract race with another prospective purchaser for a property in Woolwich. What can be done to hasten the conveyancing process?
First, If the seller is applying pressure for your conveyancing we would recommend that your solicitor is familiar with the location as they will have local connections and know-how. It is even conceivable that they could have conducted previoushomes in the same road. You would be best advised to use a Woolwich conveyancing firm. In addition, check that the lawyer is on the lender panel. It is believed that 18% of Woolwich conveyancing transactions are delayed or derailed after discovering a purchaser’s lawyer was not on their mortgage lender’s list of approved solicitors. This can often result in the legal transfer of property being held up by as much as three weeks. It is claimed that this issue impacts in the region of one hundred thousand home moves every year. Many Woolwich conveyancing firms can not represent certain mortgage companies so do check at the outset.
Can I use your services to locate a Conveyancing solicitor in Woolwich even if I’m not buying or disposing of a house, for instance where I want to acquire an office in Woolwich with a mortgage from Barclays Direct?
Our comparison service is mainly there to locate residential conveyancing solicitors in Woolwich but we have listed at the end of this page a selection of Woolwich commercial conveyancing firms. You will need to speak with the firm directly to establish if they are also authorised to represent Barclays Direct
I have been told that property searches are the main cause of delay in Woolwich conveyancing transactions. Is this right?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) has noted the findings of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not feature within the top 10 causes of hindrances in the conveyancing process. Searches are unlikely to be the root cause of delay in conveyancing in Woolwich.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up as part of conveyancing in Woolwich?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Woolwich. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’
I have been on the look out for a leasehold apartment up to £235,500 and identified one near me in Woolwich I like with open areas and railway links nearby, the downside is that it only has 52 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Woolwich for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a short lease?
Should you require a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be a potential deal breaker. Discount the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you can ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer concerning this.