My partner and I are planning to buy a home in East Bedfont and have appointed a East Bedfont conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Lloyds TSB Bank have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our East Bedfont solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the purchaser's lender. 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 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 solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own East Bedfont solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
My colleague suggested that where I am buying in East Bedfont I should ask my conveyancer to execute a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
This is a search is occasionally quoted for as part of the standard East Bedfont conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing significant information about East Bedfont around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the East Bedfont Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information concerning East Bedfont.
I'm purchasing my first flat in East Bedfont benefiting from help to buy. The builders would not reduce the price so I negotiated 6k of fixtures and fittings instead. The sale representative suggested that I not reveal to my solicitor about this extras as it would adversely affect my mortgage with the lender. Is this normal?.
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.
I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold element on a house I put an offer in last month in what should have been a simple, no chain conveyancing. East Bedfont is the location of the property. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in East Bedfont are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in East Bedfont you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds thoroughly. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in East Bedfont may determine that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold property.
How simple is it to swap firm as I need to choose a firm on the The Royal Bank of Scotland conveyancing list. I was using a high street conveyancing solicitor in East Bedfont round the corner but he is not accepted by The Royal Bank of Scotland
We will our best to assist in finding you a conveyancing solicitor in East Bedfont on the The Royal Bank of Scotland panel. Please note that the property lawyers that we list do not pay us fee if you instruct them and are authorised and regulated by the SRA who regulate all conveyancing solicitors in East Bedfont. Using the find a conveyancing solicitor tool on this site, you can compare fees for conveyancing solicitors in East Bedfont and beyond.
I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in East Bedfont. Before I get started I want to be sure as to the remaining lease term.
Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and almost all are in East Bedfont - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title. For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.
Notwithstanding our best efforts, we have been unsuccessful in trying to purchase the freehold in East Bedfont. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?
You certainly can. We can put you in touch with a East Bedfont conveyancing firm who can help.
An example of a Lease Extension case for a East Bedfont residence is 147 Redford Close in June 2012. The Tribunal determined the lease extension premium to be at £4,200 This case was in relation to 1 flat. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 82.93 years.