I can't travel far from Prestbury. Please spell out why all Prestbury lawyers aren't included on all mortgage company panels?
Banks tend to restrict either the nature or volume of conveyancing practices on their panel. Frequent examples of such restriction(s) being that a practice must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the nature of firm, some have decided to reduce the size of their panel they permit to act for them. It is worth noting that lenders have no responsibility for the accuracy of conveyancing provided by any Prestbury property lawyer on their panel. Mortgage fraud was the main trigger for the culling of conveyancing panels from 2008 even though there are contrary thoughts about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from HM Land Registry indicates that thousands of law organisations only conduct one or two conveyances annually. Those vindicating conveyancing panel culls ask why law firms should have any entitlement to be on a conveyancing panel when clearly property law is not their speciality?
My flat in Prestbury is up for sale and I have a buyer. Will the solicitor need to be required to be on the RBS conveyancing panel in order to deal with the discharge of my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the RBS conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their specifications fairly frequently currently.
Please help - my lawyer says that defective lease insurance is required on my purchase. What is the level of cover for Prestbury conveyancing?
The appropriate level of defective lease indemnity insurance depends on who your lender is. It would differ for example between Lloyds TSB Bank and Bank of Scotland. Conveyancing lawyers as opposed to members of the public take out such insurances.
Completion of my purchase has taken place for my property in Prestbury. Conveyancing was of an acceptable standard but I would like to complain about the lender. Who do I contact should I wish to lodge a complaint?
Almost all banks and building societies have complaints procedures. Your first port of call should be one of the lender’s branches or the Customer Care Department at head office. In most cases complaints to a lender are sorted out very quickly. However if you are not satisfied that the matter is not resolved you can write to Financial Ombudsman Service with full details of your complaint.
Having digested plenty of house buying guides, I note that it is considered advisable to get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local Prestbury solicitor - who is on the Principality conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. Is that normal?
Principality will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Principality 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. You may wish to consider appointing your own Prestbury surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller.
I used Action Conveyancing several years past for my conveyancing in Prestbury. I now require my file but cannot find the solicitor. What do I do?
Do contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracing your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Prestbury of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously instructed, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
I'm refinancing my existing property to a buy to let loan with The Mortgage Works and intend to use the remaining equity as a deposit on another property. The neighborhood we are talking about is Prestbury. Will your solicitors be able to act for the two banks and link together the two deals?
Do use our comparison tool on this page to ensure that the solicitors are on the relevant lender panels. On the basis that they are your solicitor should be able to tie up the two transactions but you should talk with you lawyer and communicate your desired outcome and requirements.