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Find a Forest Gate Conveyancing Solictior on Your Lender’s Panel

Ready to buy a new home in Forest Gate? Failing to check that a lawyer is on your lender’s list of approved solicitors can put your Forest Gate conveyancing at risk of delay or failure.

Only LenderPanel.com provides a subset of authorised Forest Gate conveyancers for over 130 lenders.


Recently asked questions about conveyancing in Forest Gate

My wife and I are hoping to acquire a home in Forest Gate and have instructed a Forest Gate conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Aldermore have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Forest Gate conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?

Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is standard 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 Accreditation 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Forest Gate solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

Just acquired a semi-detached house in Forest Gate , What is the estimated time for the Land Registry to record the transfer to my name? My Forest Gate conveyancing solicitor works at snail pace, so I want to be sure that my purchase is recorded.

As far as conveyancing in Forest Gate registration is no faster or slower than the rest of the country. Rather than based on location, timeframes can adjust according to the party submitting the application, whether there are errors and if the Land registry communicate with any 3rd persons or bodies. Currently in the region of three quarters of submission are fully dealt with within two weeks but occasionally there can be extensive hold-ups. Historically registration occurs once the purchaser is living at the premises therefore 'speed' is not usually primary concern but if it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your solicitor can speak with the land registry and explain the circumstances.

I opted to have a survey carried out on a property in Forest Gate before retaining conveyancers. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold element to the property. Our surveyor advised that some lenders tend refuse to issue a mortgage on a flying freehold property.

It varies from the lender to lender. Santander has different instructions for example to Birmingham Midshires. Should you wish to telephone us we can look into this further via the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Forest Gate. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Forest Gate from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?

  • Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Forest Gate can be bypassed where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers’ conveyancers.
  • The majority of landlords or Management Companies in Forest Gate charge for providing management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management pack sought on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Forest Gate. Some Forest Gate leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers. In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s consent? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Forest Gate state that internal structural alterations or addition of wooden flooring calls for a licence issued by the Landlord approving such changes. If you dont have the consents to hand you should not contact the landlord without contacting your conveyancer before hand. You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be advisable verify this by asking your solicitors. A buyer’s conveyancer will not be happy to advise their client to where the lease term is below 80 years. It is therefore important at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

I inherited a first floor flat in Forest Gate. Given that I can not reach agreement with the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the amount payable for a lease extension?

Where there is a absentee freeholder or where there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to determine the sum to be paid.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Forest Gate premises is 52 & 54 Green Street in February 2010. Following a vesting order by the County Court the Tribunal decided that the price that the Applicant for the freehold interest should pay is £20,543 This case was in relation to 2 flats. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 78 and 80.

My step-son is just in the process of moving house, he had his mortgage in principle. When the seller agreed the offer on the flat we contacted the mortgage company to progress the mortgage application. I was very surprised to discover that mortgage companies do not accept all lawyer, they must be on their panel, is this correct?

Lenders ordinarily restrict either the type or the number of conveyancing firms on their approved list of lawyers. A common example of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that banks have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any Forest Gate conveyancing practitioner on their panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, conveyancing is not their speciality. To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime? Presumably not.

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Find out more about how flying freehold can affect your the value of a property.