My husband and I are purchasing a 2 bedroom flat in Charlbury with a mortgage. We like our Charlbury lawyer, but the mortgage company advise she’s not on their "panel". We have to appoint one of the lender panel firms or continue with our Charlbury conveyancing practitioner and pay for one of their panel firms to act for them. We regard this is inequitable; are we not able to insist that the mortgage company use our Charlbury conveyancer ?
Unfortunately,no. The mortgage offered to you is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the bank’s conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. Another option that might be available is for your Charlbury conveyancing solicitor to apply to be on the conveyancing panel.
Do I have to have a meeting at the offices of the solicitor to sign the legal charge? If so, I will appoint a lawyer who conducts conveyancing in Charlbury so that I can attend their offices when needed.
Nowadays approved lawyers for mortgage companies carry out the vast majority of communications via Royal Mail, e-mail or over phone calls. This enables them to carry out the legal work for your home move regardless of where you live in the country. Nevertheless you should see if you can still book an appointment to visit conveyancing lawyer if just in case this is required.
I have a mortgage with Aldermore for my property in Charlbury. Conveyancing has been completed months ago. Should I wish to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform Aldermore?
Aldermore must be informed of your intention before renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Aldermore’s mortgage conditions. It may be that Aldermore will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Aldermore directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Aldermore conveyancing panel solicitor.
After months of negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Charlbury. My mortgage broker suggested a lawyer. I paid an upfront payment of £200. Not long after, the conveyancer contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Leeds Building Society 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 Leeds Building Society 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.
I was told two weeks ago that my mortgage has been agreed to by TSB. Is it usual for TSB to only issue the offer once my solicitor in Charlbury is approved on their conveyancing panel? TSB have asked my solicitor to see a copy of their Professional Indemnity Insurance Schedule.
Mortgage companies tend not to not issue an offer until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for TSB to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the TSB conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to our home can not be found. The conveyancers who dealt with the conveyancing in Charlbury 10 years ago are no longer around. What do I do?
As long as the title is registered the information relating to your proprietorship will be held by HMLR under a Title Number. It is possible to carry out a search at the Land Registry, identify your property and secure up to date copies of the Registered Entries for a small fee. If the property is Leasehold then the Land Registry will usually hold a certified duplicate of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be retrieved for twenty pounds.
I purchased a flat in Charlbury last 25/10/2023 and to date it is still not registered with HMLR. It was part of a new estate and my conveyancing practitioner told me that it may take one year to register. I have spoken with the Land Registry directly and they say that the original application was cancelled due to questions not being addressed in time. What can I do?
get in touch with your conveyancer - if you are not getting sensible responses, find out about their firm’s complaints procedure and escalate your concerns to a Partner. Registrations for Charlbury conveyancing are not known to be particularly slow.