It is is a decade since I bought my property in Colchester. Conveyancing lawyers have recently been appointed on the sale but I can't locate the title deeds. Is this a problem?
Don’t worry too much. Firstly the deeds may be retained by the mortgage company or they may be archived with the conveyancers who handled the purchase. Secondly in all probability the land will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to prove you are the registered owner by your conveyancing lawyers acquiring current official copies of the land registers. Almost all conveyancing in Colchester relates to registered property but in the unlikely event that your home is unregistered it is more problematic but is resolvable.
The Colchester conveyancing lawyers that I appointed last week on my purchase in Colchester have suddenly shut down. I chose them because I needed a firm on the Principality conveyancing panel and my previous Colchester lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take £195 for searches. What are my options?
If you have an estate agent involved then let them know straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Principality conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers may be able to help.
five months have gone by since my purchase conveyancing in Colchester concluded. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £150,000 when infact I paid £180,000. 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 residence 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.
How does conveyancing in Colchester differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build premises in Colchester approach us having been asked by the seller to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the residence is ready to move into. This is because house builders in Colchester typically buy the land, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancing solicitors as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are used to new build conveyancing in Colchester or who has acted in the same development.
Due to the guidance of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in Colchester ahead of instructing conveyancers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold element to the property. Our surveyor advised that some banks will not grant a mortgage on such a property.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Bank of Scotland has different requirements for example to Halifax. If you contact us we can look into this further via the relevant bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Colchester. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Colchester to see if the conveyancing will be more expensive.
What tools are available to identify a Colchester solicitor on the Halifax conveyancing panel? I have a car and am happy to travel upto 20miles to meet the solicitor.
Feel free to make use of the facility on this page. Please pick a bank and your location and you will see a number of Colchester conveyancing lawyers locally. We have detailed some Colchester conveyancing firms towards the end of this page and you can telephone them to verify if they are on the Halifax approved list