I am buying residence in Kensal Rise. My lawyer has never been on on the lender conveyancing list. Is it possible for me to retain my Kensal Rise conveyancing solicitor notwithstanding that they are not on the lender list of approved lawyers?
Your options include
- Proceed with your preferred Kensal Rise conveyancer but your bank will need to instruct a lawyer from their approved list. The net result is additional fees and potential delay.
- Choose a fresh solicitor to conduct the conveyancing, ensuring that they are on the lender conveyancing panel.
- Appeal to your conveyancing practitioner to seek to join the bank panel
AssumingI were to acquire a freehold housein Kensal Rise for cash and have no survey and no local authority searches how much should I expect to to save on my conveyancing in Kensal Rise?
The sole reduction in fees you would achieve is the costs for searches. The conveyancing practitioner is required to do the vast majority of work - money laundering, liaising with your sellers conveyancer, stamp duty return, register the property etc. A slight saving might be made by not needing to register a charge however it will not be meaningful.
As a FTB what is the most important advice you can give me concerning purchase conveyancing in Kensal Rise?
Not many law firms or advisers will tell you this but conveyancing in Kensal Rise or throughout England and Wales is an adversarial process. In other words, when it comes to conveyancing there exists plenty of opportunity for friction between you and other parties involved in the ownership transfer. For example, the seller, estate agent and sometimes your mortgage company. Selecting a law firm for your conveyancing in Kensal Rise is a critical decision as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONLY party in the legal process whose role it is to look after your legal interests and to protect you.
Every so often a third party with a vested interest will try and convince you that it is in your interests to do things their way. For instance, the estate agent may claim to be helping by claiming that your conveyancer is dragging his heels. Or your mortgage broker may tell you to do something that is contrary to your conveyancers advice. You should always trust your lawyer above all other parties when it comes to the legal transfer of property.
A colleague advised me that if I am purchasing in Kensal Rise I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
This is a search is sometimes quoted for as part of the standard Kensal Rise conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of about 40 pages, listing and setting out significant information about Kensal Rise around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Kensal Rise Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Local Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information about Kensal Rise.
We're new on the property ladder - agreed a price, yet the agent informed us that the owners will only proceed if we instruct their chosen conveyancers as they need a ‘quick sale’. Our preferred option is to instruct a local conveyancer used to conveyancing in Kensal Rise
It is unlikely the sellers are behind this. If they want ‘a quick sale', turning down a serious purchaser is is going to put the whole deal at risk. Speak to the vendors direct and make the point that (a)you are serious purchasers (b)you are ready to progress, with finances arranged © you have nothing to sell (d) you wish to move quickly (e)but you will continue to use your own,trusted Kensal Rise conveyancing lawyers - not the ones that will give their estate agent a referral fee or achieve conveyancing figures pre-set by corporate headquarters.
Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Kensal Rise from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?
- Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Kensal Rise can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the buyers’ representatives. A minority of Kensal Rise leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers. You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to double-check via your conveyancers. A purchaser's lawyer will not be happy to advise their client to where the lease term is below 80 years. It is therefore important at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale. If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as over as opposed to unsettled.
Having spent years of correspondence we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Kensal Rise. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?
Absolutely. We can put you in touch with a Kensal Rise conveyancing firm who can help.
An example of a Lease Extension case for a Kensal Rise property is 85A Chevening Road in August 2013. the Tribunals conclusions resulted in a payment of a premium for the new lease in the sum of £11,211 This case affected 1 flat. The unexpired lease term was 84.34 years.