I plan on buying a maisonette in Gainsborough. My property lawyer is not on the mortgage company approved list. Is it possible for me to continue with my Gainsborough conveyancing solicitor notwithstanding that they are excluded from the lender approved list?
You have a number of alternatives available to you here
- Carry on with your chosen Gainsborough conveyancer but your mortgage company will no doubt instruct a solicitor on their approved list. This will result in additional fees together with likely delay.
- Appoint a fresh solicitor to act in the purchase, making sure they are on the mortgage company conveyancing panel.
- Convince your conveyancer to pull out all the stops to get accepted on the lender’s conveyancing panel
The Gainsborough conveyancing firm handling our Gainsborough conveyancing has identified a difference when comparing the assumptions in the home valuation report and what is in the conveyancing documents. My lawyer says that he is duty bound to ensure that the lender is happy with this discrepancy and is still content to lend. Is my solicitor’s course or action right?
Your conveyancing practitioner must comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook specifications which do require that your lawyer disclose any incorrect assumptions in the lender’s valuation report and the legal papers. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your lawyer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for both parties.
The Gainsborough conveyancing solicitors that just started acting on my house acquisition in Gainsborough have without warning closed. I chose them because I had to have a lawyer on the Nationwide conveyancing panel and my family Gainsborough lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take one hundred and fifty pounds for searches. What do I do now?
If you have an estate agent involved then inform them immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Nationwide conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers should be in a position to help.
I am looking for a flat up to £305k and identified one near me in Gainsborough I like with amenity areas and railway links in the vicinity, however it only has 61 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Gainsborough suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a lease with such few years left?
If you require a home loan the shortness of the lease may be a potential deal breaker. Discount the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current owner has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you could request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor concerning this matter.
Why can I not complete my conveyancing in Gainsborough on Easter Monday?
Because on completion the funds will pass between the banks of the buyer and owner’s property lawyer and at present this can only occur on a business day. So you can't complete on a saturday or sunday either.