The lawyer who helped my former purchase has given a fee calculation of £995 for no sale no fee conveyancing in Bungay. I am hoping to downsize from a purpose built house for £275,000. This appears overpriced. Is it in excess of the norm for conveyancing in Bungay?
The estimate does seem marginally steep. Where you are content to invest time contrasting fee on a like for like basis you might shave off some of the cost by as much as £125. On the other hand, you mightlive to rue choosing an an unknown lawyer. Remember to enquire the solicitor can represent your lender. Do use our search tool to select a Bungay conveyancing company on the lender’s conveyancing panel which can often include conveyancing solicitors in Bungay.
We wanted to use a conveyancing solicitor in Bungay for our house move. Our financial adviser informed us that our mortgage company Godiva Mortgages Ltd won't deal with them. Surely this is unduly restrictive?
Lenders ordinarily imposes restrictions either the type or the amount of conveyancing firms on their member panel. Typical examples of such criteria being that a law practice must not be a sole practitioner. In addition to restricting the type of firm, a few lenders have limited the number of firms they permit to represent them. Be aware that Godiva Mortgages Ltd have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of Godiva Mortgages Ltd Conveyancer Panel. Mortgage fraud was a primary driver in the rationalisation of solicitor panels since 2008 even though there are mixed opinions concerning the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Data from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms, including some in or near Bungay only conduct a couple conveyances per annum.
We had chosen conveyancers based in Bungay on the Principality solicitor panel. They are now charging me a further charge for dealing with the Principality mortgage. Is this a supplemental conveyancing fee set by Principality?
Unfortunately, as long as it is in their Terms and Conditions or Quote then yes your property lawyer can charge a fee for this. This fee is not dictated by Principality but by your Bungay solicitor. Numerous firms on the Principality panel will charge ’dealing with mortgage’ fee and others do not.
I recently had an offer agreed on an apartment in Bungay. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their lawyer. I paid an advanced payment of £200. A few days later, the solicitor called me to say that they were not on the HSBC conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the HSBC panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
I have instructed a Bungay property lawyer having made sure that they are on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?
Kent Reliance will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Kent Reliance will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your conveyancing practitioner will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Bungay postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Kent Reliance, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Bungay.
Various internet forums that I have come across warn that are the number one cause of hinderance in Bungay house deals. Is this right?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) has noted the findings of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not feature amongst the common causes of delays in the conveyancing process. Local searches are not likely to feature in any holding up conveyancing in Bungay.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a flat up to £195,000 and identified one close by in Bungay I like with a park and station in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 52 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Bungay for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a lease with such few years left?
If you need a mortgage the shortness of the lease may be problematic. Reduce the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing proprietor has owned the property for at least 2 years you may ask them to start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor about this.