Is the fact that my conveyancer in Dartford is not on my bank's solicitor panel that there is a problem with the quality of her work?
It would be unwise to jump to that conclusion. There are all sorts of perfectly plausible explanations. A recent report by the solicitors regulator indicated 76% of law firms surveyed had been removed from at least one lender panel. The top 5 reasons are as follows: (1) lack of transactions (2) the lawyer is a sole practitioner (3) as part of the HSBC panel reduction (4) regulatory contact by SRA (5) accidental removal. If you are concerned you should simply call the Dartford conveyancing practice and ask them why they are no longer on the approved list for your lender.
We wanted to use a conveyancing solicitor in Dartford for our house move. Our broker has since notified us that our mortgage company Leeds Building Society won't deal with them. Why is this not regarded as unduly restrictive?
A lender can require an approved solicitor act for it. You would be liable to bear the charges for this. Do use our search facility to get a quote from a solicitor to carry conveyancing in Dartford on the Leeds Building Society approved list of solicitors.
My relative suggested that where I am buying in Dartford I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
This is a search is sometimes quoted for as part of the standard Dartford conveyancing searches. It is a large report of about 40 pages, listing and detailing important information about Dartford 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 details, Dartford Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data concerning Dartford.
four months have gone by following my purchase conveyancing in Dartford took place. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £150,000 when infact I paid £160,000. 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 employed by a long established estate agent office in Dartford where we have experienced a few leasehold sales derailed as a result of short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Dartford conveyancing firms. Please can you clarify whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?
As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.
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 purchaser.
Having spent months of correspondence we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Dartford. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?
if there is a missing freeholder or where there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to calculate the sum to be paid.
An example of a Lease Extension case for a Dartford flat is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case affected 13 flats. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 76 years.
When it comes to my conveyancing in Dartford should I be paying VAT on the following: (1) Land reg fee on purchase (2) Pre - completion search fee (3) SDLT E submission on purchase (4) Bank TT fee
(1) Land reg fee on purchase - No (2) Pre - completion search fees -No, (such conveyancing searches are HMLR ones and means £4 and possibly £2 bankruptcy per name on your mortgage) (3) SDLT E submission on your purchase - There is no VAT on Stamp Duty. However if the firm is charging a stamp duty e-submission fee as part of their services - some Dartford conveyancers do - that will incur VAT(4) Bank transfer fee - Yes it is for the property lawyer's time in submitting the funds this way.