My wife and I are looking to buy a property in Eye and have instructed a Eye 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 afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Eye lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
Where you are buying a property needing 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 bank 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 lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Eye solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
We are acquiring a new build duplex in Eye and my lawyer is advising me that she has to the lender to reveal incentives from the seller. I am nearing the developer’s deadline to exchange and I would rather not delay matters. is my lawyer playing by the book?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your lawyer. A precondition to being on a bank panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
Me and my brother have a terraced Georgian house in Eye. Conveyancing lawyer acted for me and The Royal Bank of Scotland. I did a free Land Registry search last week and there are a couple of entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold with the matching address. I'd like to know for sure, how can I find out??
You should assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Eye and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they sell they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with lenders. You can also question the position with the conveyancing lawyer who conducted the purchase.
I am buying my first flat in Eye with a mortgage from HSBC Bank. The sellers would not move on the price so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The estate agent advised me not to tell my conveyancer about the side-deal as it would put at risk my mortgage with the bank. Should I keep quiet?.
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.
There are only 68 years left on my flat in Eye. I now wish to extend my lease but my freeholder is can not be found. What options are available to me?
On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to find the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent should be useful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document which can be accepted by the court as evidence that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Eye.
Leasehold Conveyancing in Eye - Sample of Queries Prior to Purchasing
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The majority of Eye leasehold apartments will be liable to pay a service bill for the upkeep of the block invoiced on behalf of the freeholder. Should you buy the apartment you will have to pay this liability, normally quarterly throughout the year. This could differ from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built buildings. In all probability there will be a ground rent to be met yearly, this is usually not a large figure, say about £25-£75 but you should to check it because occasionally it could be surprisingly expensive. If a Eye lease has no more than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the value of the apartment. It is worth checking with your bank that they are willing to to proceed given the lease term. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will most likely have to extend the lease sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of what this will be. Remember, in most cases you will need to own the property for a couple of years in order to be entitled to carry out a lease extension. Who manages the building?
I pay a service charge for my ground floor flat in Eye. As a result of poor financial planning I fell into arrears with remittance. The freeholders agreed a settlement plan but there is still three grand outstanding at the current time.
I now wish to sell and I am worried this may hold me back if I have to settle the amount due first. Do I have to settle before - is this practicable?
You should speak with the conveyancing practitioner conducting your Eye conveyancing but one option might be to arrange for the arrears to be transferred to the buyers. The final price payable would be reduced to reflect the amount of debt they assume. They would then discharge the arrears post completion of the purchase.