My wife and I are buying a brand new flat in Chessington and my lawyer is advising me that she has to the mortgage company to reveal incentives from the developer. I am on a tight deadline to exchange and I would rather not prolong deal. Is my lawyer right?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancer. A precondition to being on a mortgage company panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
I had intended to instruct a conveyancing solicitor in Chessington for our house purchase. Our broker has since advised us that our bank Accord Mortgages Ltd won't deal with them. Surely this is unduly restrictive?
Banks on the whole restrict either the type or the number of conveyancing practices on their approved list of lawyers. Typical examples of such restriction(s) being that a law practice must have two or more partners. As well as restricting the type of firm, some have reduced the amount of firms they allow to represent them. You should note that Accord Mortgages Ltd have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of Accord Mortgages Ltd Conveyancer Panel. Mortgage fraud was a primary driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago even though there are differing views regarding the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Figures from the Land Registry indicate that thousands of law firms, including some in or near Chessington only perform very few conveyances per annum.
A colleague advised me that if I am buying in Chessington I should 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 sometimes included in the estimate for your Chessington conveyancing searches. It is a large report of about 40 pages, listing and detailing significant information about Chessington around the property and the people living there. It includes 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 House Prices, Crime statistics, Chessington Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information regarding Chessington.
I have been on the look out for a ground for flat up to £245,000 and found one close by in Chessington I like with open areas and transport links nearby, however it only has 52 years on the lease. There is not much else in Chessington suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a lease with such few years left?
Should you require a mortgage that many years will likely be problematic. Reduce the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current 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 current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this matter.
I’m about to sell my basement apartment in Chessington. Conveyancing is yet to be initiated, however I have recently had a yearly service charge demand – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?
The sensible thing to do is discharge the maintenance contribution as you normally would because all rents and maintenance payments will be apportioned on completion, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the subsequent invoice date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.
Having spent months of correspondence we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Chessington. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?
Most definitely. We can put you in touch with a Chessington conveyancing firm who can help.
An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Chessington residence is Flat D 15 Claremont Gardens in September 2013. TheTribunal determined in accordance with section48 and Schedule13 of the Leasehold Reform,Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 that the premium for the extended lease should be fourteen thousand one hundred and eighty seven pounds (£14,187.00) This case related to 1 flat.
My folks are unable to locate their Chessington property on the HMLR site. They have a vague recollection 50 years ago when they acquired the house there were complications concerning Chessington not being identified on some systems.
Almost all premises in Chessington should be revealed. Have you limited your search to simply the postcode. Ordinarily it will mention all the houses and flats inside the postcode. Where registered it will show up with a title number. Where they bought 48 years ago it's conceivable it may be not yet registered. The property could still be revealed but with the title number identified as 'na'. In this scenario you will need to find the original title papers which might be with your parent’s mortgage company.