My husband and I are looking to purchase a house in Woodbury and are in fact using a Woodbury conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Britannia have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Woodbury lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for 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 Accreditation 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 lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Woodbury lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
I am buying a property mortgage free in Woodbury. I have lived for the last dozen years in Woodbury. Conveyancing searches are exorbitant. Given that I know the area and road intimately must I have all the conveyancing searches?
If you not getting a home loan, then almost all of the Woodbury conveyancing searches are at your discretion. Your solicitor will 'advise', no-doubt strongly, that you should have searches completed, but she has a professional duty to take that path of advice. One thing to consider; if you are likely to sell the house at a future date, it will likely be be of interest to your future purchaser what the searches disclose. On occasion houses with no practical issues can still throw up detrimental search results. A competent conveyancing solicitor in Woodbury should provide you some constructive guidance in this regard.
It is is a decade since I purchased my property in Woodbury. Conveyancing lawyers have just been retained on the sale but I am unable to locate the title deeds. Will this jeopardise the sale?
You need not be too concerned. Firstly the deeds may be kept by the lender or they could be in the possession of the solicitor who handled your purchase. Secondly the likelihood is that the property will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you own the property by your conveyancing lawyers procuring current official copies of the land registers. Nearly all conveyancing in Woodbury involves registered property but in the unlikely event that your property is not registered it is more of a problem but is not insurmountable.
Will my conveyancer be raising enquiries regarding flooding during the conveyancing in Woodbury.
The risk of flooding is if increasing concern for solicitors dealing with homes in Woodbury. There are those who buy a property in Woodbury, fully aware that at some time, it may be flooded. However, aside from the physical destruction, where a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to obtain a mortgage, adequate insurance cover, or sell the property. Steps can be carried out during the course of a property purchase to forewarn the buyer.
Lawyers are not best placed to offer advice on flood risk, however there are a number of checks that may be undertaken by the purchaser or on a buyer’s behalf which can give them a better understanding of the risks in Woodbury. The conventional set of property information forms given to a buyer’s solicitor (where the Conveyancing Protocol is adopted) contains a standard inquiry of the seller to discover whether the property has ever been flooded. If the property has been flooded in past and is not revealed by the seller, then a purchaser could commence a claim for damages as a result of such an misleading answer. A purchaser’s conveyancers may also conduct an environmental search. This should reveal whether there is any known flood risk. If so, more detailed inquiries will need to be initiated.
Are all Woodbury conveyancers on every bank conveyancing panel?
The Lexsure search tool on this page may be of use or you can drop into your high street bank branch in Woodbury. the probability is that they will be in a position to list some reputable conveyancing solicitors in Woodbury