It is a dozen years since I bought my home in Enfield. Conveyancing lawyers have now been instructed on the sale but I am unable to find my deeds. Is this a problem?
You need not be too concerned. Firstly there is a chance that the deeds will be retained by your mortgage company or they could be in the possession of the conveyancers who oversaw your purchase. Secondly in all probability the property will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to prove you are the registered owner by your conveyancing solicitors obtaining up to date copy of the land registers. Nearly all conveyancing in Enfield relates to registered property but in the unlikely event that your property is unregistered it adds to the complexity but is resolvable.
The Enfield conveyancing solicitors that I recently instructed on my house acquisition in Enfield have without warning closed. I only went with them because I had to have a firm on the Nationwide conveyancing panel and my preferred Enfield lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take £195 for searches. What should be my next steps?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Nationwide conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers may be able to help.
Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my house are lost. The solicitors who conducted the conveyancing in Enfield 4 years ago no longer exist. What do I do?
Gone are the days when you need to hold title deeds to establish that you are the owner of your registered land or property, as the Land Registry hold details of all registered land or property electronically.
I am buying my first flat in Enfield benefiting from help to buy. The builders would not reduce the price so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The estate agent advised me not to tell my solicitor about the side-deal as it could adversely affect my loan with the lender. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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 have offered on a fortnight ago in what was supposed to be a simple, no chain conveyancing. Enfield is the location of the property. What do you suggest?
Flying freeholds in Enfield are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Enfield you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds very carefully. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Enfield may decide 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 residence.
Am I better off to go with a Enfield conveyancing lawyer in close proximity to the house I am hoping to buy? We have a good friend who can carry out the legal formalities but his firm is located 300miles away.
The primary upside of using a high street Enfield conveyancing firm is that you can attend the office to sign documents, present your identification documents and apply pressure on them if necessary. They will also have local intelligence which is a bonus. However nothing is more important than finding someone that will do a good and efficient job. If you know people who instructed your friend and on the whole were happy that must surpass using an unknown Enfield conveyancing solicitor just because they are round the corner.