It is a dozen years since I bought my house in Gloucestershire. Conveyancing lawyers have recently been instructed on the sale but I can't find my deeds. Is this a major issue?
You need not be too concerned. First there is a chance that the deeds will be retained by the lender or they may be in the possession of the conveyancers who acted in your purchase. Secondly in most cases the property will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you are the registered owner by your conveyancing solicitors procuring up to date copy of the land registers. Almost all conveyancing in Gloucestershire relates to registered property but in the rare situation where your home is unregistered it is more tricky but is not insurmountable.
When it comes to mortgage companies such as TSB, do Gloucestershire property lawyers face an annual charge to be on the conveyancing panel?
We are not aware of any bank fees to be on their list of approved firms, although some do levy an administration fee to deal with the processing of the conveyancing panel submission.
The mortgage over my property is with HSBC for my property in Gloucestershire. Conveyancing has been completed a year ago. In the event that I decide to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform HSBC?
HSBC must be informed of your intention in advance of letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of HSBC’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact HSBC directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a HSBC conveyancing panel solicitor.
My sealed bid on a detached house in Gloucestershire has been agreed to, but there is a chain. The vendors have offered on a property, however it’s not been accepted yet, and have viewings of other properties in the pipeline. I have chosen a nearby conveyancing solicitor in Gloucestershire. What should be my next step? At what stage do I apply for the mortgage with Santander?
It is usual to have anxieties where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket prematurely (home loan application is approx one thousand pounds, then survey, Gloucestershire conveyancing search charges, etc). First, you should check that your solicitor is on the Santander approved list. As to the next steps this very much dictated by the specifics of your transaction, attraction to this property and on the state of the market. In a rising market many home buyers would apply for the mortgage with Santander and pay for the valuation and only if it was satisfactory would they request their property lawyer to move forward with the conveyancing in Gloucestershire.
My colleague suggested that where I am buying in Gloucestershire I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
A search of this type is sometimes included in the estimate for your Gloucestershire conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out significant information about Gloucestershire around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime statistics, Gloucestershire Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information about Gloucestershire.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a property I put an offer in last month in what should have been a straight forward, chain free conveyancing. Gloucestershire is the location of the property. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in Gloucestershire are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Gloucestershire 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 Gloucestershire 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 property.
I am looking for a conveyancing practitioner in Gloucestershire for my home move. Is there any facility to check a solicitor's complaints history with the legal regulator?
Anyone can review presented Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) determinations stemming from investigations commenced on or after 1 January 2008. Go to Check a solicitor's record. To find records Pre 2008, or to check a solicitors history, call 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and 09.30 - 18.00 Tuesday. For non-uk callers, call +44 (0)121 329 6800. The SRA sometimes monitor call for training requirements.
We have been told by numerous friends to expect 6-8 weeks for Gloucestershire conveyancing to complete.This was 3 ago. The property information was only sent to my lawyer yesterday so does the clock start running now?
You should be pragmatic concerning timing. Property transactions in Gloucestershire usually takes about two months. This time period is not because solicitor are slow and willfully delay matters. The amount of money involved in purchasing any residence is so high, the buyer’s conveyancer having to carry out a whole range of queries, searches and other checks to protect the buyer and their lender (if there is to be a mortgage) from expensive, avoidable problems. Conveyancing in Gloucestershire involves getting information from an array of different parties, including other property lawyer, local councils, private companies, lenders. Many of these are well organised. Plenty are not. Finally, it doesn't matter how quickly your property lawyer do their work, if the people you are buying from or are selling to aren't ready, nothing can move forward until they are.