It has come to my attention via my estate agent that my Hebburn solicitor is not on the mortgage company Conveyancing panel. What can I do to be sure if this is correct?
You need to contact your Hebburn conveyancer. You lawyer should notify you of the situation. Where they are not on the panel they may recommend you to a Hebburn conveyancing practice that is on the conveyancing panel for your bank.
A relative advised me that if I am purchasing in Hebburn I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
A search of this type is sometimes quoted for as part of the standard Hebburn conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing significant information about Hebburn around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Hebburn Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime statistics, Local Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about Hebburn.
Just had an offer accepted on a new build apartment in Hebburn. Conveyancing is a frightening process at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. Can you give me some examples of some of the questions asked in new build conveyancing.
Set out below are examples of a selection of leasehold new build questions that you should expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Hebburn
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The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme. There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. Will control of the Management Company (if any) be handed over to purchasers on completion of the last sale or earlier? Please confirm the Lease plans are architect prepared. Where there is an Undertaking being granted there is the risk of forfeiture of the Headlease subject to relief if one or more of the Underlessees are willing to accept the original Head Lessee’s obligations as otherwise relief will be denied to the Underlessees. The only alternatives are the Head Lessor agreeing not to forfeit the Headlease or the Head Lessee guaranteeing to the Underlessees that it will not be in breach of the Headlease.
I have been recommended by three or four local property agents in Hebburn to choose a property lawyer using your seach tool. What’s the financial inducement for Estate Agents to promote your lawyers over alternative conveyancing organisations?
We refuse to make any referral fee for sending work our way. We thought it would be too underhand a fee as a client could think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not getting any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.
I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of apartments in Hebburn which have in the region of 50 years remaining on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?
There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Hebburn is a deteriorating asset as a result of the reducing lease term. The closer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it reduces the value of the property. The majority of purchasers and mortgage companies, leases with under eighty years become less and less attractive. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a property with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Hebburn conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease. They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.
I invested in buying a leasehold flat in Hebburn, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Equivalent flats in Hebburn with a long lease are worth £265,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 charged once a year. The lease finishes on 21st October 2101
With only 76 years left to run the likely cost is going to range between £8,600 and £9,800 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.
The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.
A licensed conveyancer handled my conveyancing in Hebburn half a dozen years ago and was holding my deeds but has now closed – What can I do to get hold of them?
Title deeds, as such, no longer exist as the majority of properties in Hebburn are registered digitally at Land Registry. If you need to prove evidence of proprietorship or are disposing of or refinancing your conveyancing practitioner will need to obtain up to date copies of the register from the Land Registry in any case.
If you feel there may be other documents or you have any other queries please e-mail your request with details of the transaction and documents you need to filerequest@clc-uk.org. The CLC will let you know what information they have and any additional information they may need before they are in a position to identify and send the documents to you. Following an intervention it may take some time for the CLC to access archived files and documents, but your request will be actioned with reasonable haste.