My fiance and I are planning to buy a house in Chirk and have instructed a Chirk conveyancing practice. 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. Chelsea Building Society have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Chirk solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is normal 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your mortgage company 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Chirk lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
My relative recommended that if I am buying in Chirk I should ask my conveyancer to execute a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
This is a search is occasionally included in the estimate for your Chirk conveyancing searches. It is a large document of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out important information about Chirk around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Chirk Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime details, Chirk Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data regarding Chirk.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up as part of conveyancing in Chirk?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in Chirk. 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…’
How does conveyancing in Chirk differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build or newly converted property in Chirk come to us having been asked by the developer to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the property is built. This is because developers in Chirk tend to 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 accustomed to new build conveyancing in Chirk or who has acted in the same development.
I need to appoint a conveyancing solicitor for sale conveyancing in Chirk. I have stumble across a site which looks to be the ideal answer If it is possible to get all the legals completed via email that would be preferable. Do I need to be wary? What should out be looking out for?
As usual with these online conveyancers you need to read ALL the small print - did you notice the extra charge for dealing with the mortgage?