My wife and I are hoping to purchase a home in St Margarets and are in fact using a St Margarets conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Leeds Building Society have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our St Margarets lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred St Margarets lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
What is your number one tip for finding a conveyancing solicitor in St Margarets
It would be unwise to be swayed by the cheapest St Margarets conveyancing quote. You really do get what you pay for when it comes to property lawyers. A cheap quote may mean that the conveyancing solicitor is handling a lot of jobs at one time and you won’t get the quality of service and the attention that you need. It is, however, wise to use a conveyancer who has a fixed fee on a no sale, no fee basis. This way, you know exactly what you’ll have to pay in ahead of time.
Is there a list of Virgin Money panel conveyancers in St Margarets on the Building Society Association’s Website?
No. There is no such facility on the Council of Mortgage Lenders or Building Society Association websites. A small selection of mortgage companies make their panel listings open the public on the web. Where you are seeking to appoint a St Margarets conveyancer on the Virgin Money please use our tool.
We previously chose conveyancing lawyers based in St Margarets on the HSBC solicitor approved list. They have just invoiced me a separate fee for handling the HSBC mortgage. Is this a supplemental conveyancing fee set by HSBC?
As unfair as it may appear, as long as it’s in their Terms of Engagement or estimate then yes your lawyer may charge a fee for this. This charge is not dictated by HSBC but by your St Margarets conveyancer. Plenty of firms on the HSBC panel will charge ’dealing with mortgage’ fee but plenty of firms include it on their overall fee.
Should commercial conveyancing searches reveal impending roadworks that may impact a commercial estate in St Margarets?
Its becoming the norm that commercial conveyancing solicitors in St Margarets will perform a SiteSolutions Highways report as it dramatically cuts the time that conveyancers spend in looking into accurate data on highways that impact buildings and development assets in St Margarets. The report provides definitive information on the adoption status of roads, footpaths and verges, as well as the implication of traffic schemes and the rights of way surrounding a commercial development sites in St Margarets.
For every commercial conveyancing transaction in St Margarets it is critical to investigate the adoption status of roads surrounding a site. Failure to identify developments where adoption procedures have not been dealt with adequately may cause delays to St Margarets commercial conveyancing deals as well as pose a risk to future plans for the site. These searches are not conducted for residential conveyancing in St Margarets.
About to purchase a new build flat in St Margarets. Conveyancing is daunting at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. Can you give me some examples of some of the questions asked in new build legal work.
Set out below are examples of a few leasehold new build questions that you may expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in St Margarets
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Has the Lease plan been approved by the Land Registry and if not when will they be lodged for this purpose? Please provide evidence that the form of Lease proposed has been approved by the Land Registry. The Lease must contain a provision on behalf of the Vendor to pay the service charges in respect of unoccupied units in order to ensure that all services can be provided. Where there is an Undertaking being granted there is the risk of forfeiture of the Headlease subject to relief if one or more of the Underlessees are willing to accept the original Head Lessee’s obligations as otherwise relief will be denied to the Underlessees. The only alternatives are the Head Lessor agreeing not to forfeit the Headlease or the Head Lessee guaranteeing to the Underlessees that it will not be in breach of the Headlease. Please supply a car parking plan.
We own a leasehold flat in St Margarets. Conveyancing was finalised in 2009. I have read on various consumer forums that I should not allow the lease length fall too short. Why is that a problem?
St Margarets residential long term leases are for a prescribed period - usually ninety nine years when they are first granted. However many appartments in St Margarets were constructed or converted in the 60’s and so these leases now have under eighty years unexpired. This may seem like plenty of time however Banks, Building Societies and other mortgage lenders on the whole need leases to have at least seventy five years unexpired to be mortgageable. This means that when you come to sell the property you will need a lease extension if you are getting close to eighty years. To optimize your property value you should be considering whether or not to extend your lease well in advance of selling the property. Furthermore strong financial reasons to taking action before the lease reaches even eighty years as when the lease is below eighty years the amount to be paid to extend starts to escalate.