At what point does exchange of contracts happen for purchase conveyancing in Birmingham and am I required to be at the solicitors office?
Where you are round the corner to our conveyancing solicitors in Birmingham you are invited in to sign the paperwork. However, the law practices we work with offer a national conveyancing service and provide just as comprehensive and professional a job for you when communicating with you by post or email. The executing of the contract is not the important part. A signed contract simply enables the conveyancer to officially exchange when the time is right, which will usually be very shortly after signing. The procedure is is usually a five minute process, although where a long "chain" is in play, since the process requires the relevant party's solicitor (not necessarily a conveyancing solicitor in Birmingham)to be in the office available at the end of the phone to exchange contracts.
I am buying a terraced house in Birmingham. How practical is it for me to do the conveyancing?
Leaving aside the complexities and merits of DIY conveyancing in Birmingham you will have to appoint a solicitor on your bank's conveyancing panel to look after their interests. Most people therefore find it easier to let the solicitor act for them and the lender. Furthermore there is minimal cost savings to be made in you doing conveyancing for yourself and another lawyer conducting the conveyancing for the lender. Please feel free to use the search tool to find a lawyer on your lender panel in Birmingham.
Should our lawyer be asking questions concerning flooding during the conveyancing in Birmingham.
The risk of flooding is if increasing concern for solicitors dealing with homes in Birmingham. There are those who buy a property in Birmingham, fully expectant that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, aside from the physical destruction, if a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, adequate building insurance, or sell the property. There are steps that can be taken as part of the conveyancing process to forewarn the purchaser.
Lawyers are not best placed to impart advice on flood risk, however there are a various checks that may be carried out by the purchaser or by their solicitors which will figure out the risks in Birmingham. The conventional set of property information forms supplied to a purchaser’s conveyancer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) incorporates a standard question of the seller to determine if the premises has ever been flooded. If the property has been flooded in past and is not disclosed by the seller, then a buyer could issue a compensation claim stemming from an misleading reply. The buyer’s conveyancers should also commission an environmental search. This will reveal whether there is any known flood risk. If so, more detailed investigations should be carried out.
Me and my brother have a terraced Georgian property in Birmingham. Conveyancing practitioner acted for me and Skipton Building Society. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and I saw a couple of entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold with the exact same property. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You should assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Birmingham and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with lenders. You can also enquire as to the situation with the conveyancing lawyer who conducted the purchase.
I am purchasing my first flat in Birmingham with a mortgage from Barclays . The sellers would not budge the price so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The house builders rep advised me not to tell my lawyer about the side-deal as it may put at risk my loan with the lender. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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.
I am looking for a ground for flat up to £235,500 and found one close by in Birmingham I like with amenity areas and transport links nearby, however it only has 49 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Birmingham in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a short lease?
Should you require a home loan that many years will likely be a potential deal breaker. Discount the offer by the expected 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 can ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor concerning this.