My wife and I are hoping to purchase a home in Cotgrave and are in fact using a Cotgrave conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Barclays Direct have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Cotgrave solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is normal for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. 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 lender 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Cotgrave lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
Finally the sale completed on my house in Cotgrave last November yet the purchaser is telephoning me to moan that his conveyancer needs to hear from mine. What should my lawyer have done now that I have sold?
Following your house sale your lawyer is duty bound to deliver the transfer documentation and all of the paperwork to the buyer’s conveyancer. If applicable, your lawyer should also send confirmation that the mortgage has been paid off to the buyers lawyers. There are no post completion steps just for conveyancing in Cotgrave.
I am assisting my niece sell her flat in Cotgrave. Will the conveyancer order an energy assessment or do I organise this?
After the demise of Home Information Packs, energy assessments was kept a compulsory element of moving property. An energy performance certificate must be commissioned in advance of the property being put on the market. This is not a task that law firms normally organise. Where you are using a Cotgrave conveyancing lawyer they might be able to arrange energy performance certificates due to their relationships with long established local providers
I am expecting a AIP from Skipton this week so we know how much we could potentially offer as otherwise we only have online calculators to go by (which aren't taking into account credit checks etc). Do Skipton recommend any Cotgrave solicitors on the Skipton conveyancing panel, or is it better to go independently?
You will need to appoint Cotgrave solicitors independently although you'll need to choose one on the Skipton conveyancing panel. The solicitor represents both you and Skipton through the process.
My wife and I are spending time looking at flats in Cotgrave and I am about to put in an offer. Should I already have a property lawyer appointed at this stage? I am planning to take a mortgage with Skipton.
You should start obtaining conveyancing estimates from solicitors ASAP. Once you decide who you want to use and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and forward their contact information on to the estate agent. As you are obtaining a mortgage with Skipton, ask your prospective lawyers if they are on the Skipton conveyancing panel otherwise they can't do the mortgage legal work.
It has been 3 months following my purchase conveyancing in Cotgrave took place. 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 premises 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.
I am purchasing my first flat in Cotgrave with a loan from Chelsea Building Society. The builders would not budge the amount so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The sale representative told me not disclose to my solicitor about this deal as it will put at risk my mortgage with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder 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.
Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Cotgrave with the aim of expediting the sale process?
- Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Cotgrave can be avoided if you instruct lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers’ lawyers. If there is a history of conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be nervous about purchasing a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved. You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but you should double-check via your solicitors. A buyer’s lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is below 75 years. In the circumstances it is important at an early stage that you consider whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale. Many landlords or managing agents in Cotgrave levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold home. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the actual amount of the charges. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Cotgrave.
I invested in buying a garden flat in Cotgrave, conveyancing was carried out 9 years ago. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Corresponding properties in Cotgrave with over 90 years remaining are worth £201,000. The ground rent is £45 charged once a year. The lease runs out on 21st October 2091
You have 65 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to range between £13,300 and £15,400 as well as professional fees.
The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information before getting professional advice.