My fiance and I are hoping to purchase a property in Dolgellau and are in fact using a Dolgellau conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Barnsley Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Dolgellau lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is standard 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 Accreditation 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 bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Dolgellau solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
I am acquiring a house without a mortgage in Dolgellau. I have resided for the previous twelve years in Dolgellau. Conveyancing searches are expensive. Given that I have knowledge of the road and vicinity intimately must I have all the conveyancing searches?
Provided that you do not need a home loan, then all but one or two of the Dolgellau conveyancing searches are non-obligatory. Your solicitor will ’encourage you, perhaps strongly, that you should have searches done, but he has a professional duty to take that path of advice. One thing to take into account; if you are going to dispose of the house in the future, it will be of relevance to your prospective buyer what the searches disclose. There are plenty of instances where premises with day to day issues can still show up unexpected search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in Dolgellau should provide you some constructive advice in this regard.
My colleague suggested that where I am purchasing in Dolgellau I should ask my conveyancer to execute a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
This is a search is sometimes included in the estimate for your Dolgellau conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of about 40 pages, listing and detailing important information about Dolgellau around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Dolgellau Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Dolgellau Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data regarding Dolgellau.
I am looking for a ground for flat up to £195,000 and identified one near me in Dolgellau I like with open areas and transport links in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 49 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Dolgellau for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a short lease?
Should you require a home loan that many years will likely be an issue. Discount the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing proprietor has owned the premises for at least 2 years you may request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor regarding this.
I was advised by numerous selling agents in Dolgellau to locate a conveyancer on your site. What’s the financial incentive for Estate Agents to recommend your services over a competitor’s?
We don’t give any referral fee for pointing buyers and sellers to this site. We found it would be just too difficult a fee as home movers will think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not receiving any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.
I am attracted to a two flats in Dolgellau both have in the region of 50 years unexpired on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?
There is no doubt about it. A leasehold flat in Dolgellau is a deteriorating asset as a result of the reducing lease term. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the value of the premises. The majority of buyers and banks, leases with under 75 years become less and less marketable. On a more upbeat note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of premises with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Dolgellau conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease. You may find he or she is happy to negotiate informally and willing to consider your offer straight off, without having to involve anyone else. This will save you time and money and it could help you reach a lower price on the lease. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.
I invested in buying a split level flat in Dolgellau, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. How much will my lease extension cost? Similar flats in Dolgellau with a long lease are worth £216,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 invoiced annually. The lease terminates on 21st October 2094
You have 69 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £9,500 and £11,000 plus costs.
The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide the actual costs without more detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.