My husband and I are hoping to buy a house in Rainham and have appointed a Rainham conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Barclays Direct have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Rainham solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
If you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. 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 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 lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Rainham solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
We are purchasing a newly built flat in Rainham and my conveyancer is informing me that she has to the lender to disclose incentives from the builder. I am on a tight deadline to sign contracts and my preference is not to delay the conveyancing. is my lawyer playing by the book?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancing practitioner. A precondition to being on a bank panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook provisions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
My Conveyancer in Rainham is not on the Clydesdale Solicitor Panel. Can I still use my prefered solicitor even though they are not on the Clydesdale approved list?
The limited options open to you here include:
- Complete the purchase with your preferred Rainham solicitors but Clydesdale will need to retain a lawyer on their list of acceptable firms. This will inevitably rack up the overall conveyancing charges as well as result in delays.
- Get a new lawyer to to deal with the purchase, not forgetting to check they are on the Clydesdale panel
Will our conveyancer be asking questions concerning flooding during the conveyancing in Rainham.
Flooding is a growing risk for solicitors conducting conveyancing in Rainham. Some people will buy a house in Rainham, completely expectant that at some time, it may be flooded. However, leaving to one side the physical destruction, where a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to obtain a mortgage, satisfactory building insurance, or dispose of the property. There are steps that can be taken during the course of a property purchase to forewarn the purchaser.
Conveyancers are not qualified to offer advice on flood risk, however there are a various searches that may be initiated by the buyer or by their lawyers which can figure out the risks in Rainham. The conventional set of information sent to a buyer’s conveyancer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) includes a standard question of the owner to determine if the property has historically flooded. In the event that flooding has previously occurred which is not revealed by the seller, then a purchaser could issue a compensation claim stemming from an inaccurate answer. A purchaser’s lawyers may also commission an environmental search. This will reveal whether there is a recorded flood risk. If so, further inquiries should be initiated.
I am looking for a flat up to £235,500 and found one round the corner in Rainham I like with a park and transport links in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 61 years on the lease. There is not much else in Rainham for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a lease with such few years left?
Should you require a home loan the shortness of the lease may be problematic. Reduce the price by the amount the 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 start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this.