My wife and I are looking to acquire a property in Bury St Edmunds and are in fact using a Bury St Edmunds conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Norwich and Peterborough Building Society have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Bury St Edmunds conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the purchaser's lender. 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 property lawyer should contact your mortgage company 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 bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Bury St Edmunds solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
Some advice if I may. My Bury St Edmunds solicitor is advising me that he has toorder Bury St Edmunds conveyancing searches asthe firm are on the Lloydssolicitor panel. Do I not have a choice here?
You have limited options available to you. Given that you are taking out a loan with a mortgage company your lawyer has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your conveyancing practitioner would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of your lender’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to follow the CML Handbook specifications . Even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out Bury St Edmunds conveyancing searches.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly identified as part of conveyancing in Bury St Edmunds?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in Bury St Edmunds. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’
Over the last few months I have been searching for a flat up to £305k and identified one close by in Bury St Edmunds I like with amenity areas and railway links nearby, however it's only got 49 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Bury St Edmunds suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a short lease?
If you require a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will be problematic. Reduce the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you can request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer concerning this.
Am I right to be suspicious that estate agents that I am dealing with are suggesting a factory type conveyancing firm as opposed to a High Street Bury St Edmunds conveyancing company?
As is the case with many professional services, often recommendations from family and friends can be very helpful. Yet there are lots of players in a conveyancing transaction; estate agents, financial adviser and lenders may recommend solicitors to retain. Sometimes these solicitors might be known to one of the organisations as being good in their field, but occasionally there behind the scenes financial incentive behind the recommendation. You are at liberty to choose your preferred lawyer. However, bear in mind that the majority of banks have an approved list of lawyers you must use for the mortgage related work in your transaction.
In relation to leasehold conveyancing in Bury St Edmunds what are the most frequent lease defects?
There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in Bury St Edmunds. Most leases are drafted differently and drafting errors can result in certain provisions are erroneous. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:
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Maintenance charge proportions which don’t add up to the correct percentage
You will have a problem when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Birmingham Midshires, Coventry Building Society, and Aldermore all have very detailed conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease does not cover certain provisions they may refuse to grant the mortgage, obliging the purchaser to pull out.
I purchased a studio flat in Bury St Edmunds, conveyancing was carried out in 2006. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Corresponding flats in Bury St Edmunds with over 90 years remaining are worth £180,000. The ground rent is £65 yearly. The lease finishes on 21st October 2084
With 59 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £20,900 and £24,200 as well as costs.
The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other concerns that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.