I am acquiring a new build apartment in High Peak and my solicitor is informing me that she has to the mortgage company to reveal incentives from the builder. The Estate Agents are hassling me to exchange contracts and my preference is not to prolong deal. is my lawyer playing by the book?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancing practitioner. A precondition to being on a lender 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.
It is a dozen years since I acquired my house in High Peak. Conveyancing lawyers have recently been appointed on the sale but I am unable to track down my deeds. Is this a major issue?
Don’t worry too much. First the deeds may be retained by the mortgage company or they may be archived with the lawyers who handled your purchase. Secondly the likelihood is that the property will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you own the property by your conveyancing lawyers acquiring current official copies of the land registers. Almost all conveyancing in High Peak relates to registered property but in the unlikely event that your property is unregistered it adds to the complexity but is resolvable.
We're in High Peak, First time buyers purchasing with a mortgage (lender is Principality , and our solicitor is on the Principality conveyancing panel). How long should the conveyancing process take?
The fact that your lawyer is on the Principality conveyancing panel is a help. It would almost certainly delay matters if they were not. However, no solicitor should guarantee a timeframe for your conveyancing, due to third parties outside of your control such as delays caused by lenders,conveyancing search providers or by the other side’s solicitors. The time taken is often determined by the number of parties in a chain.
My father-in-law has suggested that I instruct his conveyancing solicitors in High Peak. Do I follow his guidance?
No doubt the best way to select a conveyancing solicitor is to get recommendations from friends or family who have actually previously instructed the firm you're contemplating using.
I am a negotiator for a busy estate agency in High Peak where we see a few leasehold sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local High Peak conveyancing solicitors. Please can you clarify whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?
As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.
Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the purchaser.
Leasehold Conveyancing in High Peak - Examples of Questions you should ask Prior to buying
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Most High Peak leasehold apartments will have a service bill for the upkeep of the building set on behalf of the landlord. If you buy the property you will have to pay this liability, normally quarterly during the year. This can differ from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built buildings. There will also be a ground rent for you to pay annual, this is usually not a exorbitant amount, say about £50-£100 but you need to enquire as sometimes it can be many hundreds of pounds. The best form of lease arrangement is a share of the freehold. In this arrangement the tenants enjoy being in charge if their destiny and although a managing agent is often retained where it is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent acts for the leaseholders themselves. In the main the outlay for major works tend not to be included within maintenance charges, although a few managing agents in High Peak obliged leasehold owners to pay into a reserve fund and this is used to offset against larger works.
Online research suggests that High Peak solicitors are more expensive than licensed conveyancers in High Peak when it comes to buying a house. Am I better off using a conveyancer or a solicitor where I am purchasing a property in High Peak.
When it comes to conveyancing in High Peak the costs are unlikely to vary dramatically depending on whether the legal expert is a licenced conveyancer or solicitor.