How do I check that the solicitor handling my conveyancing in Stratford is on the lender’sconveyancing panel? I am looking to avoid the situation of having one lawyer for me and one for The Royal Bank of Scotland thus paying £192.00 in further conveyancing charges.
Feel free to take advantage of the find a lender approved solicitor tool on this web page. Pick the lender and type ‘Stratford’ or your location and you will discover a number of lawyer offices in Stratford or nearest you.
My friend advised me that if I am purchasing in Stratford I should 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 included in the estimate for your Stratford conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing significant information about Stratford around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime details, Stratford Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information regarding Stratford.
It has been 3 months since my purchase conveyancing in Stratford completed. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £200,000 when infact I paid £160,000. Why the discrepancy?
The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the property from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.
I am buying my first flat in Stratford with the aid of help to buy. The builders would not move on the price so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The property agent suggested that I not to tell my lawyer about this side-deal as it may affect my mortgage with the bank. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.
Am I better off to use a Stratford conveyancing lawyer based in the location that I am buying? I have an old university friend who can execute the conveyancing however his firm is located 200miles drive away.
The benefit of a high street Stratford conveyancing practice is that you can pop in to execute documents, deliver your identification documents and pester them where appropriate. They will also have local intelligence which is a bonus. That being said it's more important to get someone that will do a good and efficient job. If you know people who instructed your friend and on the whole were impressed that must trump using an unknown Stratford conveyancing lawyer just because they are round the corner.