My fiance and I are looking to purchase a property in Christchurch and have instructed a Christchurch conveyancing practice. 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. Barclays Direct have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Christchurch lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is normal 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your property lawyer 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 solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Christchurch solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
Is it necessary during the course of the conveyancing process to visit the offices of the solicitor to execute the legal charge? If so, I will appoint a lawyer who conducts conveyancing in Christchurch so that I can attend their offices if necessary.
As opposed to twenty years ago, the vast majority banks no longer oblige their conveyancing panel lawyer to witness the mortgagors signature. You will still be obliged to supply ID documents and there are still manifest benefits to using a local ayer, in your case a conveyancing solicitor in Christchurch.
A friend recommended that if I am buying in Christchurch I should ask my conveyancer to carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is usually included in the estimate for your Christchurch conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of about 40 pages, listing and setting out significant information about Christchurch around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Christchurch Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime details, Local Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about Christchurch.
3 months have elapsed since my purchase conveyancing in Christchurch completed. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £150,000 when infact I paid £180,000. 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 residence 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 have been on the look out for a leasehold apartment up to £305k and found one near me in Christchurch I like with a park and transport links nearby, the downside is that it only has 49 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Christchurch in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a lease with such few years left?
Should you need a home loan the shortness of the lease will be an issue. Reduce the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing owner has owned the property for at least twenty four months you may ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this matter.