It is a dozen years since I acquired my property in Killay. Conveyancing solicitors have recently been instructed on the sale but I am unable to locate my title deeds. Will this jeopardise the sale?
You need not be too concerned. Firstly there is a chance that the deeds will be kept by the lender or they could be in the possession of the conveyancers who acted in the purchase. Secondly the chances are that the property will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to prove you own the property by your conveyancing solicitors obtaining current official copies of the land registers. Almost all conveyancing in Killay relates to registered property but in the rare situation where your property is unregistered it adds to the complexity but is not insurmountable.
The Killay conveyancing firm that I recently instructed on my purchase in Killay have suddenly shut down. They were on acting for me because I needed a lawyer on the Skipton conveyancing panel and my family Killay lawyer was not. I paid them 275 plus VAT in advance. What are my options?
If you have an estate agent involved then let them know immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will 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 Skipton 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 solicitors may be able to assist.
Is it the case that all Killay solicitor firms on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel are regulated by the SRA?
As a firm of solicitors, in order to be on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel they would need to be regulated by the SRA. The majority of banks do permit licenced conveyancers on their panel and in that case the organisation would be regulated by the CLC.
We have agreed to purchase a house in Killay. An unusual aspect is that the roof has a solar panel. Lloyds have issued a mortgage offer so presumably this is not a concern to them. Why is my solicitor raising questions about the panel?
As you are obtaining a mortgage with Lloyds your lawyer must check the conveyancing instructions outlined in Part 2 of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Lloyds. The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook sets out minimum conditions for solar panel roof-space leases, and property lawyers are required to report to Lloyds where a lease does not comply with these provisions. The conditions relate to the installation of panels on properties nationwide and is not isolated to Killay.
I have paid off my mortgage with Santander. I assume I don't need a Killay conveyancing practitioner on the Santander panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.
If you have finished paying off your Santander mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Santander mortgage from the register. Santander, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where Santander has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Santander has instructed the Land Registry to do so
A colleague suggested that where I am buying in Killay I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is occasionally included in the estimate for your Killay conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out significant information about Killay 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 type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data concerning Killay.
I need to find a conveyancing solicitor for residential conveyancing in Killay. I've land on a web site which seems to have the perfect solution If it is possible to get all this stuff done via phone that would be preferable. Should I be wary? What are the potential pitfalls?
As usual with these online conveyancers you need to read ALL the small print - did you notice the extra charge for dealing with the mortgage?
I am employed by a reputable estate agency in Killay where we see a few leasehold sales derailed due to short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Killay conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the buyer?
Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start 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 needs to be completed prior to, or at the same time as completion of the sale.
An alternative approach is 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 Killay - Sample of Questions you should consider Prior to buying
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Plenty Killay leasehold apartments will have a service charge for maintenance of the block invoiced on behalf of the freeholder. Where you buy the apartment you will have to meet this contribution, usually quarterly throughout the year. This may be anything from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a rentcharge to be met yearly, ordinarily this is not a exorbitant sum, say around £25-£75 but you should to check it because on occasion it can be prohibitively expensive. In the main the cost for major works are not included within maintenance charges, although a few managing agents in Killay require tenants to pay into a reserve fund and this is used to offset against larger repairs or maintenance. How much is the ground rent and service charge?