What can a local search reveal regarding the house my wife and I purchasing in Ascot?
Ascot conveyancing often commences with the submitting local authority searches directly from your local Authority or through a personal search organisations for instance Onsearch The local search plays a central role in many a Ascot conveyancing purchase; as long as you don’t want any unpleasant once you have moved into your property. The search should provide information on, amongst other things, details on planning applications applicable to the property (whether granted or refused), building control history, any enforcement action, restrictions on permitted development, nearby road schemes, contaminated land and radon gas; in all a total of 13 topic sections.
The deeds to our home are lost. The lawyers who handled the conveyancing in Ascot 10 years ago have long since closed. What are my options?
Assuming the title is registered the information relating to your ownership will be retained by HMLR under a Title Number. It is possible to carry out a search at the Land Registry, identify your house and get up to date copies of the Registered Entries for less than a fiver. If the property is Leasehold then the Land Registry will also normally retain a certified copy of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be ordered for £20 inclusive of VAT.
I'm purchasing my first flat in Ascot with the aid of help to buy. The builders refused to reduce the amount so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The property agent advised me not to tell my solicitor about the side-deal as it will jeopardize my mortgage with the bank. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I have offered on two weeks back in what should have been a straight forward, chain free conveyancing. Ascot is where the house is located. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in Ascot are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Ascot you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Ascot may decide that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold premises.
I have been recommended by a couple of local property agents in Ascot to find a solicitor on your site. What’s the financial advantage for Estate Agents to promote your services over a competitor’s?
We refuse to offer any financial incentive for directing people in our direction. We found it would be just too difficult to pay a commission as members of the public would think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I getting any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.
A conveyancing firm dealt with my conveyancing in Ascot three years past having stored my title documents but has now closed – how do I retreive them?
Title deeds, as such, no longer exist as most properties in Ascot are archived electronically at Land Registry. If you need to establish evidence of proprietorship or are selling or refinancing your conveyancing practitioner will need to obtain up to date copies of the register from the Land Registry in any case.
If you feel there may be other documents or you have any other queries please e-mail your request with details of the transaction and documents you need to filerequest@clc-uk.org. The CLC will let you know what information they have and any additional information they may need before they are in a position to identify and send the documents to you. Following an intervention it may take some time for the CLC to access archived files and documents, but your request will be actioned with reasonable haste.