My wife and I are hoping to acquire a home in Malvern and are in fact using a Malvern conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Santander have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Malvern solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is usual for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for 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 lender 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 bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Malvern solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
As someone not used to conveyancing in Malvern what’s your top tip you can impart for the legal transfer of property in Malvern
Not many law firms shout this from the rooftops but conveyancing in Malvern or throughout Worcestershire is an adversarial experience. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there exists plenty of opportunity for friction between you and other parties involved in the house moving process. For example, the seller, property agent and even potentially a mortgage company. Selecting a lawyer for your conveyancing in Malvern should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the SOLE person in the transaction whose interest is to act in your best interests and to protect you.
There is a distinct ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone must be at fault for the process taking so long. We recommend that you should always trust your lawyer ahead of all other players in the home moving process.
My grandfather passed away last year and as sole heir and executor I was left the house in Malvern. The house had a relatively small loan left on it of around £8000. I want to transfer the title deeds into my name whilst I re-mortgage to Leeds Building Society, pay off the mortgage. Is this allowed?
If you intend to refinance then Leeds Building Society will insist on your using a conveyancer on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the Leeds Building Society mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.
A colleague suggested that where I am buying in Malvern I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
A search of this type is usually quoted for as part of the standard Malvern conveyancing searches. It is a large document of about 40 pages, listing and setting out significant information about Malvern 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 Property Price, Crime details, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information concerning Malvern.
I have todaybecome aware that Stirling Law have closed. They conducted my conveyancing in Malvern for a purchase of a freehold house 12 months ago. How can I establish that the property is registered correctly in the name of the former proprietor?
The easiest method to check if the premises is registered to you, you can make a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Malvern conveyancing specialists.