I am buying a newly built apartment in Ledbury and my lawyer is informing me that she is duty bound to the lender to disclose incentives from the builder. The Estate Agents are hassling me to exchange and I don't want to prolong deal. Is my lawyer right?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancer. A precondition to being on a bank 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.
Are the Ledbury conveyancing solicitors identified as being on the Co-operative conveyancing panel, together with their details provided by Co-operative?
Ledbury conveyancing firms themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Co-operative conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Co-operative directly.
I am purchasing my first flat in Ledbury with the aid of help to buy. The developers would not reduce the price so I negotiated 6k of fixtures and fittings instead. The property agent told me not inform my conveyancer about this side-deal as it will jeopardize my mortgage with the bank. Should I keep quiet?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.
I have been on the look out for a flat up to £305k and identified one close by in Ledbury I like with a park and station in the vicinity, however it's only got 61 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Ledbury for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a short lease?
Should you need a mortgage the shortness of the lease will likely be an issue. Reduce the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing proprietor has owned the property for at least 2 years you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer about this.
I was advised by three or four local selling agents in Ledbury to select a conveyancer on your site. Is there a financial inducement for Estate Agents to offer your site over a competitor’s?
We don’t offer any referral fee for pointing buyers and sellers in our direction. We found it would be just too difficult to pay a commission as home movers will think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not receiving any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.
I have just started marketing my basement flat in Ledbury. Conveyancing is yet to be initiated, however I have just received a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – what should I do?
It best that you discharge the service charge as normal given that all ground rent and service invoices will be allotted as part of the financial calculations for completion monies, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the purchaser for the period running from after the completion date to the subsequent invoice date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.
Leasehold Conveyancing in Ledbury - Sample of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing
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The majority of Ledbury leasehold properties will have a service charge for maintenance of the building levied on behalf of the landlord. Should you buy the flat you will have to meet this charge, usually in instalments accross the year. This can differ from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large common grounds. In all likelihood there will be a ground rent for you to pay yearly, this is usually not a large figure, say about £25-£75 but you should to enquire as sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds. If a Ledbury lease has less than 80 years it will affect the marketability of the property. It is worth checking with your lender that they are content with remaining years on the lease. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will probably have to extend the lease sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of how much this will be. Remember, in most cases you will be required to have owned the residence for two years before you are eligible to exercise a lease extension.