My fiance and I are hoping to buy a home in St Asaph and have appointed a St Asaph 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. Norwich and Peterborough Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our St Asaph solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' solicitors 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 bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred St Asaph lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
Is it realistic for conveyancing in St Asaph to be concluded inside a month?
In a situation where you are under a tight deadline to sign contracts it is advisable to make sure that your lawyer is familiar with the location as they will benefit local contacts and know-how. It is possible that they could have transacted previousproperties in the same neighbourhood. You would be best advised to use a St Asaph conveyancing lawyer. Second, ensure that the conveyancing firm is on the lender panel. It is said that 18% of St Asaph conveyancing transactions are delayed or derailed after discovering a purchaser’s conveyancer was not on their mortgage lender’s member panel. This can often result in the conveyancing being held up by almost three weeks. It is believed that this issue impacts in the region of one hundred thousand home sales annually. Most St Asaph conveyancing practices can not represent certain lenders so do check at the outset.
A friend advised me that where I am purchasing in St Asaph I should ask my conveyancer to 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 occasionally quoted for as part of the standard St Asaph conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of about 40 pages, listing and setting out important information about St Asaph around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the St Asaph Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Local Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data concerning St Asaph.
Due to the guidance of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a house in St Asaph prior to appointing solicitors. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold overhang to the property. The surveyor has said that some lenders tend not issue a mortgage on such a premises.
It varies from the lender to lender. Santander has different requirements for example to Halifax. If you contact us we can check via the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in St Asaph. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.
How simple is it to swap firm as I have to appoint one who is on the Aldermore conveyancing list. I was using a family conveyancing solicitor in St Asaph five minutes from me but the firm is not accepted by Aldermore
It would be our pleasure to assist you select a conveyancing solicitor in St Asaph on the Aldermore panel. Please note that the property lawyers that we work with do not pay us commission if you instruct them and are registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority who oversee all conveyancing solicitors in St Asaph. In utilising search facility on this site, you can contrast costs for conveyancing solicitors in St Asaph and beyond.