Having sold my house in Heathrow last August but my buyer keeps e-mailing daily complaining that their conveyancer is waiting to hear from mine. What are the post completion sale legalities following completion?
After completion of your house sale your lawyer should send the transfer documentation and all additional paperwork to the purchaser's lawyers. Depending on the transaction, your solicitor must also confirm that the legal charge in favour of the lender has been repaid to the buyers conveyancers. There are no post completion tasks unique to conveyancing in Heathrow.
The Heathrow conveyancing lawyers that I recently instructed on my house acquisition in Heathrow have without warning shut down. They were on acting for me because I had to have a lawyer on the UBS conveyancing panel and my previous Heathrow lawyer was not. I sent them a cheque for £250 in advance. What do I do now?
If you have an estate agent involved then let them know straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would 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 UBS 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.
Various online forums that I have frequented warn that are the main cause of stalling in Heathrow house deals. Is this right?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) published conclusions of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not figure amongst the top 10 causes of delays in the conveyancing process. Local searches are unlikely to be the root cause of slowing down conveyancing in Heathrow.
Due to the advice of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in Heathrow prior to appointing lawyers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. My surveyor has said that some mortgage companies may not issue a mortgage on such a premises.
It depends who your proposed lender is. HSBC has different requirements from Nationwide. Should you wish to call us we can investigate further via the appropriate bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Heathrow. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Heathrow to see if the conveyancing will be more expensive.
Is it best to appoint a Heathrow conveyancing practitioner who is local to the property I am buying? We have a good friend who can conduct the legal formalities but his firm is located 300kilometers away.
The benefit of a high street Heathrow conveyancing practice is that you can attend the office to execute documents, hand in your ID and pester them where appropriate. They will also have local intelligence which is a bonus. However it's more important to get someone that will do a good and efficient job. If if people you trust used your friend and the majority were impressed that must surpass using an unknown Heathrow conveyancing solicitor just because they are based in the area.
How much should conveyancing in Heathrow cost?
Almost all Heathrow conveyancing practices will charge a fixed fee. Where extra work arise during the conveyancing your property lawyer is obliged disclose to you in writing of such supplemental fees for such work as soon as it becomes apparent. Some organisations will agree not to charge a fee if a transaction does not go ahead, others will levy an bill for a percentage of the agreed fee, according to the stage at which the deal fails.
It is advisable to obtain various conveyancers to send you an estimate.