My fiance and I are hoping to buy a flat in Snodland and have instructed a Snodland conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Alliance & Leicester have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Snodland lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual 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 property lawyer should contact your bank 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 Snodland solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
We just had an offer accepted to buy with Coventry BS. We have called around locally but cant to find a Snodland conveyancing firm on the Coventry BS panel. Can you assist?
You should take advantage of the find a lender approved solicitor tool on this site. Pick the lender and type Snodland or your preferred area and you will be presented with numerous conveyancers located in Snodland or near you.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly identified as part of conveyancing in Snodland?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Snodland. 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…’
I decided to have a survey done on a house in Snodland in advance of retaining lawyers. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold overhang to the house. Our surveyor advised that some mortgage companies tend refuse to issue a mortgage on this type of house.
It varies from the lender to lender. HSBC has different instructions for example to Nationwide. Should you wish to call us we can investigate further with the relevant mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Snodland. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Snodland to see if the conveyancing will be more expensive.
Is it best to instruct a Snodland conveyancing lawyer who is local to the property I am purchasing? I have an old university friend who can carry out the conveyancing but they are based 300kilometers away.
The benefit of a local Snodland conveyancing practice is that you can drop in to execute paperwork, present your ID and apply pressure on them if necessary. Having local Snodland know how is a benefit. However it's more important to get someone that will do a good and efficient job. If if people you trust used your friend and they were happy that should outweigh using an unknown Snodland conveyancing solicitor just because they are round the corner.