My fiance and I are looking to buy a home in Branston and have appointed a Branston conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Barclays Direct have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Branston conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 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 lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Branston solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
We are about to complete buying a house in Branston but as a result of damage from the recent storms I have was able negotiate compensation from the vendor of £2k taking the form of a deduction in the price. This was going to be dealt with as part of a side agreement but Santander will not agree to this. Why were they involved?
Your conveyancing practitioner being on a Santander conveyancing panel is obliged to advise Santander of any changes to the purchase price. If you prohibit your solicitor to notify the price change to Santander then they would have to discontinue acting for you. In addition, Santander and you would have to appoint a new property lawyer for your conveyancing in Branston.
It is is a decade since I bought my home in Branston. Conveyancing lawyers have now been retained on the sale but I can't locate my deeds. Will this jeopardise the sale?
Don’t worry too much. First there is a possibility that the deeds will be kept by your mortgage company or they could still be with the lawyers who handled the purchase. Secondly the chances are that the property will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to prove you own the property by your conveyancing solicitors acquiring up to date copy of the land registers. The vast majority of conveyancing in Branston relates to registered property but in the rare situation where your home is unregistered it is more problematic but is resolvable.
Is there a search tool that I can utilise to discover of the solicitor handling my conveyancing in Branston is on the bank’sapproved panel? I am looking to avoid the situation of having one lawyer for me and one for Nottingham Building Society thus spending £192.00 in another set of conveyancing invoice.
Feel free to make the most of the find a conveyancing panel solicitor tool on this web page. Pick the lender and type ‘Branston’ or your preferred area and you will see numerous solicitors offices in Branston or by proximity to you.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold element on a house I have offered on last month in what should have been a straight forward, chain free conveyancing. Branston is the location of the property. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in Branston are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Branston you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds diligently. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Branston may decide 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 residence.