Unfortunately I am unable to travel far from Haydock. Can you please spell out why all Haydock solicitors aren't automatically on all bank panels?
As inequitable as it may appear for mortgage companies to limit who can act for them, from the public’s or conveyancer’s perspective, the other side of the coin is that mortgage companies are increasingly anxious and consider it essential to shield themselves from mortgage fraud. As a result of this concern lenders have reduced their panel of approved conveyancing lawyers to a manageable size.
I am the registered owner of a freehold premises in Haydock yet charged rent, why is this and what is this?
It is rare for properties in Haydock and has limited impact for conveyancing in Haydock but some freehold properties in England (particularly common in North West England) pay an annual sum known as a Chief Rent or a Rentcharge to a third party who has no other legal interest in the land.
Rentcharge payments are usually between £2.00 and £5.00 per year. Rentcharges date back many centuries, but the Rent Charge Act 1977 barred the generation of fresh rentcharges from 1977 onwards.
Old rentcharges can now be redeemed by making a one off payment under the Act. Any rentcharges that are still in existence in 2037 will be extinguished.
A colleague advised me that where I am buying in Haydock I should ask my conveyancer to carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is usually quoted for as part of the standard Haydock conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out significant information about Haydock 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 demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Haydock Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about Haydock.
Me and my brother purchased a terraced Victorian property in Haydock. Conveyancing lawyer represented me and Nationwide Building Society. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and I saw a couple of entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold with the matching address. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?
You should review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be 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 Haydock and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with purchasers. You can also check the situation with your conveyancing solicitor who completed the work.
I am buying my first flat in Haydock benefiting from help to buy. The sellers refused to move on the amount so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of extras instead. The estate agent advised me not disclose to my solicitor about this deal as it will affect my mortgage 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 have been advised by numerous estate agents in Haydock to select a solicitor on your site. Is there a financial upside for Estate Agents to recommend your site over and above a competitor’s?
We refuse to give any commission for directing people our way. We thought it would be too underhand a fee because a client could think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not getting any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.