My fiance and I are looking to acquire a flat in Marston Moretaine and are in fact using a Marston Moretaine conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Britannia have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Marston Moretaine solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional 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 Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your lender 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 Marston Moretaine lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
Can I use your services to find a Conveyancing solicitor in Marston Moretaine even where I’m not purchasing or selling a house, for example where I wish to buy an office in Marston Moretaine with a mortgage from Bank of Scotland?
Our comparison service is predominantly utilised to select domestic conveyancing solicitors in Marston Moretaine but we have recorded at the end of this page a selection of Marston Moretaine commercial conveyancing firms. You will need to speak with the company directly to see if they can also act for Bank of Scotland
We have agreed to purchase a house in Marston Moretaine. A rare aspect is that the roof has a solar panel. HSBC have issued a mortgage offer so presumably this is not a concern to them. Why is my solicitor raising questions about the panel?
As your lender is HSBC your lawyer must comply with the conveyancing instructions set out in Section 2 of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for HSBC. The CML Handbook contains minimum requirements for solar panel roof-space leases, and conveyancing practitioners are required to report to HSBC where a lease fails to comply with these requirements. The requirements relate to the installation of panels on properties in England and Wales and is not isolated to Marston Moretaine.
The mortgage over my property is with Santander for my property in Marston Moretaine. Conveyancing was finalised a year ago. If I am intending to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform Santander?
Santander must be informed of your intention before renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Santander’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Santander directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Santander conveyancing panel firm.
The formalities of my purchase has taken place for my property in Marston Moretaine. Conveyancing was a necessary evil but I feel I should register my dissatisfaction about the lender. How do I make a complaint?
All banks and building societies have complaints procedures. Your first port of call should be one of the lender’s branches or the Customer Services Team at head office. In most cases complaints to a lender are sorted out very quickly. If you feel the matter is not resolved you can write to Financial Ombudsman Service with full details of your complaint.
A relative recommended that if I am purchasing in Marston Moretaine I should ask my conveyancer to carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
This is a search is occasionally quoted for as part of the standard Marston Moretaine conveyancing searches. It is a large report of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out significant information about Marston Moretaine 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 demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Marston Moretaine Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data concerning Marston Moretaine.
My husband and I are 17 days into a freehold purchase having been recommend to conveyancers by the local agent to execute conveyancing in Marston Moretaine. I am not happy. Could you you assist me in finding new solicitors?
A solicitor would have to be very poor in order to consider replacing them. Has your mortgage offer been sent? If so you will need to make them aware of the replacement lawyer and have the loan are issued to the new lawyers. Your new conveyancer needs to be on the banks panel to avoid added charges and delays. So that should be your first question of the new lawyers. The find a solicitor tool should assist you in finding a bank approved conveyancer for your home move in Marston Moretaine