My fiance and I are hoping to buy a property in South Croydon and have appointed a South Croydon conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Bank of Scotland have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our South Croydon conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the mortgage company. 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 bank 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own South Croydon solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
We're in South Croydon, FTBs purchasing with a mortgage (lender is Aldermore , and our solicitor is on the Aldermore conveyancing panel). How long should the conveyancing process take?
The fact that your lawyer is on the Aldermore conveyancing panel is a help. It would almost certainly delay matters if they were not. However, no conveyancing practitioner should guarantee a timeframe for your conveyancing, due to third parties outside of your control such as delays caused by lenders,conveyancing search providers or by the other side’s solicitors. The time taken is often determined by the number of parties in a chain.
2 months have elapsed since my purchase conveyancing in South Croydon concluded. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £175,000 when infact I paid £215,000. Why the discrepancy?
The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the asset from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.
I am looking for a flat up to £195,000 and found one round the corner in South Croydon I like with open areas and railway links in the vicinity, however it's only got 51 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in South Croydon for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a short lease?
Should you require a home loan that many years will likely be an issue. Reduce the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the property for a minimum of 2 years you could request that they start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this.
How do I search for a South Croydon solicitor on the Yorkshire Building Society conveyancing panel? I have wheels and am happy to travel upto 10miles to meet the conveyancer.
You can use the tool on this website. Please pick a bank and your location and you will see a number of South Croydon conveyancing lawyers based on proximity. We have listed some South Croydon conveyancing firms at the bottom of this page and you can call them to verify whether they are on the Yorkshire Building Society member panel