My wife and I are planning to acquire a property in Kemp Town and are in fact using a Kemp Town conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Yorkshire Building Society have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Kemp Town conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the purchaser's lender. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your bank and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Kemp Town solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
A relative suggested that if I am purchasing in Kemp Town I should 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 sometimes included in the estimate for your Kemp Town conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of about 40 pages, listing and detailing important information about Kemp Town around the property and the people living there. It incorporates 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 House Prices, Crime statistics, Kemp Town Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information concerning Kemp Town.
I purchased a renovated Victorian house in Kemp Town. Conveyancing lawyer represented me and Platform Home Loans Ltd. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are a couple of entries: the first freehold, the second leasehold with the exact same property. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?
You should read 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 Kemp Town and other locations in 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 buyers. You can also question the position with your conveyancing solicitor who conducted the purchase.
I opted to have a survey done on a property in Kemp Town before appointing conveyancers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold overhang to the property. The surveyor advised that some lenders tend not issue a mortgage on such a house.
It depends who your proposed lender is. HSBC has different instructions for example to Birmingham Midshires. If you contact us we can look into this further with the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Kemp Town. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Kemp Town to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.
My husband and I are first time buyers - agreed a price, yet the selling agent told us that the seller will only go ahead if we use their chosen solicitors as they are insisting on a ‘quick sale’. We would rather use a family conveyancer used to conveyancing in Kemp Town
We suspect that the seller is unaware of this demand. Should the vendor require ‘a quick sale', taking such a hostile approach to a genuine purchaser is likely to cause more damage than good. Contact the vendors directly and explain that (a)you are serious purchasers (b)you are ready to go, with mortgage lined up © you have nothing to sell (d) you wish to move quickly (e)however you intend to instruct your preferred Kemp Town conveyancing lawyers - not the ones that will give their estate agent a commission or achieve conveyancing figures pre-set by corporate headquarters.
Is planning consent required to split a single dwelling into two flats in Kemp Town? This has taken place to a property next door to a relative in Kemp Town and was not aware of it happening until the works were done.
Planning consent is necessary for converting a single house in Kemp Town into flats but possibly not for converting back to single dwelling-house so, in answer to your question, yes,a it is needed.