My lawyer has discovered a defect with the lease for the flat we are buying in Fforestfach. The other side have offered title insurance as a solution. We are happy with insurance and will pay for it. Our lawyer says that he must check that the mortgage company is content with this solution. Are we the client or is the mortgage company ?
The short answer to your last question is that, notwithstanding the risk of a conflict of interest, you and the mortgage company are the client. Your property lawyer must comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook provisions. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions require your lawyer to disclose issues such as defects with the lease so that the lender can be afforded the opportunity to check with their valuer as to the extent that the value of the property is affected. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your conveyancing practitioner will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.
How up to date is your search tool for Fforestfach conveyancing solicitors on the TSB conveyancing panel? Do TSB send you an updated list?
Fforestfach conveyancing firms themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the TSB conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from TSB directly.
Two weeks ago we had a mortgage agreed in principle with Principality. Fforestfach conveyancing practitioners have been instructed. What is the average time that one could expect to receive a mortgage offer from Principality?
There is no definitive answer here. Have Principality completed the survey? Have you informed Principality as to your lawyers' details and checked that your lawyers are on the Principality conveyancing panel? It is not unusual for a mortgage offer to take a month to come through.
My fiancee and I are spending time looking at houses in Fforestfach and I am about to put in an offer. Is it too early to have a solicitor in place? I intend to finance via a home loan with Bank of Ireland.
You should start requesting conveyancing estimates from solicitors ASAP. Once you decide who you want to use and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and forward their details on to the EA. Given that you are getting a mortgage with Bank of Ireland, ask your prospective lawyers if they are on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel otherwise they can't do the mortgage legal work.
After much negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in Fforestfach. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their conveyancer. I paid an advanced payment of £200. A few days later, the property lawyer contacted me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Santander 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 Santander 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.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £195,000 and identified one near me in Fforestfach I like with a park and railway links in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 49 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Fforestfach for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a lease with such few years left?
If you need a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term may be a potential deal breaker. Discount the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for at least 2 years you can ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor concerning this.
My solicitors in Fforestfach have advised me that they can not locate my conveyancing file. To assist with my purchase I took out a mortgage with the lender. Is it case that being on the bank conveyancing panel they need to have retained the file for a number of years?
Different lenders have different requirements but many of the Terms and Conditions of Conveyancing Panel Appointment require the file to be held for a period of 6 years. That being said we have not seen a copy of the bank Conveyancing Panel Terms. It might be worth you contacting the bank directly.