My fiance and I are looking to purchase a house in Dersingham and are in fact using a Dersingham conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Halifax have this morning contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Dersingham solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors 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 Accreditation 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 lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Dersingham solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
I have given 8 weeks notice to my existing landlord and have to leave my let out property in Dersingham by the end of next month. Conveyancing on my purchase is underway. Is it possible to complete in 4 weeks as I wish to avoid having to move into temporary accommodation?
The normal practice is not to provide notice for your lease until exchange of contracts has taken place. If you have not previously done so, speak to your solicitor and request that they cajole the other side, try to a target completion date that all parties will work to achieve
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up during conveyancing in Dersingham?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Dersingham. 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 leasehold apartment up to £195,000 and found one close by in Dersingham I like with open areas and railway links nearby, the downside is that it only has 61 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Dersingham in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake buying a short lease?
If you require a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be problematic. Reduce the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer about this matter.
Am I better off to instruct a Dersingham conveyancing lawyer based in the location that I am buying? I have an old university friend who can execute the legal work but they are based a couple of hundredmiles away.
The benefit of a high street Dersingham conveyancing practice is that you can pop in to execute paperwork, hand in your ID and apply pressure on them where appropriate. Having local Dersingham know how is a bonus. However nothing is more important than finding someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If other friends have used your friend and they were impressed that should trump using an unfamiliar Dersingham conveyancing lawyer just because they are round the corner.
My wife and I may need to sub-let our Dersingham 1st floor flat for a while due to a new job. We instructed a Dersingham conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have closed and we did not have the foresight to seek any guidance as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?
Notwithstanding that your previous Dersingham conveyancing lawyer is no longer available you can review your lease to see if it allows you to sublet the apartment. The rule is that if the deeds are silent, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you need to seek permission from your landlord or some other party prior to subletting. The net result is that you cannot sublet in the absence of first obtaining permission. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably withheld. If the lease does not allow you to sublet you should ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.
Leasehold Conveyancing in Dersingham - A selection of Queries before Purchasing
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What restrictions exist in the Dersingham Lease? Are there any major works on the horizon that will add a premium to the maintenance fees? The answer will be useful as a) areas can cause problems in the building as the common areas may start to deteriorate if services remain unpaid b) if the tenants have an issue with the running of the building you will need to know about it