I am acquiring a new build flat in Brentford and my conveyancer is advising me that she has to the bank to disclose incentives from the builder. I am nearing the developer’s deadline to sign contracts and I would rather not delay deal. is my lawyer playing by the book?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your lawyer. A precondition to being on a mortgage company panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook provisions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
It is a dozen years since I acquired my property in Brentford. Conveyancing lawyers have recently been retained on the sale but I can't locate my title documents. Is this a problem?
You need not be too concerned. First the deeds may be retained by the lender or they could be archived with the lawyers who acted in your purchase. Secondly the likelihood is that the land will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you are the registered owner by your conveyancing lawyers procuring up to date copy of the land registers. The vast majority of conveyancing in Brentford relates to registered property but in the rare situation where your property is unregistered it is more problematic but is not insurmountable.
My friend advised me that if I am buying in Brentford I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
This is a search is usually quoted for as part of the standard Brentford conveyancing searches. It is a large report of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out important information about Brentford around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Brentford Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data concerning Brentford.
four months have elapsed following my purchase conveyancing in Brentford concluded. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £150,000 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 property 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.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a ground for flat up to £235,500 and found one round the corner in Brentford I like with a park and railway links nearby, however it's only got 49 years unexpired on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Brentford in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a lease with such few years left?
If you require a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term may be problematic. Reduce the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current owner has owned the property for at least 2 years you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this.
I am employed by a long established estate agency in Brentford where we see a few flat sales put at risk as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Brentford conveyancing solicitors. Please can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?
As long as the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer need not have to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.
An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the buyer.
After months of correspondence we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Brentford. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?
Where there is a absentee freeholder or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the LVT to calculate the price payable.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Brentford premises is 105 & 105A Seaford Road in July 2013. The tribunal determined that the price payable for the freehold interest in the Property was £43,985 . This sum was to be paid into Brentford County Court to enable the matter to proceed This case was in relation to 2 flats.