My fiance and I are planning to purchase a flat in Crystal Palace and have appointed a Crystal Palace conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Virgin Money have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Crystal Palace solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property with the assistance of 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 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Crystal Palace solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
Can you vouch for a Barclays sanctioned Crystal Palace conveyancing practice who can have us moved in within 28 days? Am I best advised to choose a high street Crystal Palace conveyancer or an internet conveyancer?
We can recommend some very good Crystal Palace conveyancing firms. Another option is to visit the high street in Crystal Palace. Visit two or three firms and request to speak with a conveyancing solicitor for a costs illustration. Mention your expectations together with the reasons and ask for a commitment on speed. Appoint the one that genuine.
A friend suggested that where I am purchasing in Crystal Palace I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is sometimes quoted for as part of the standard Crystal Palace conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of about 40 pages, listing and setting out important information about Crystal Palace around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime statistics, Local Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about Crystal Palace.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold element on a property I put an offer in a fortnight ago in what was supposed to be a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. Crystal Palace is where the house is located. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in Crystal Palace are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Crystal Palace 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 Crystal Palace 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 premises.
I have been advised by a number of selling agents in Crystal Palace to find a solicitor on your site. What’s the financial inducement for Estate Agents to recommend your lawyers ahead of a competitor’s?
We refuse to make any commission for pointing buyers and sellers to this site. We found it would be just too difficult to pay a commission because home movers will think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not getting any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.