My husband and I are planning to buy a house in Leeds and are in fact using a Leeds conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Platform Home Loans Ltd have this evening contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Leeds solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for the mortgage company. 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 Quality 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Leeds solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
Our grandson is in the process of securing a new build apartment in Leeds with a home loan from Kent Reliance. His lawyer has advised him of a delay in completing the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. Who needs to receive the form?
The document is intended to provide information to the main parties engaged in the purchase. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the valuer when requested. The developer will be required to start the process by downloading the form and completing it. The form will therefore need to be available for the valuer at the time of his or her site visit. The form should be sent to the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.
I am assisting my aunt sell her property in Leeds. Does the conveyancing solicitor commission an energy assessment or should I organise this?
After the demise of Home Information Packs, EPC’s remained a required part of selling a house. An EPC needs to be commissioned prior to the property being marketed. This is not a task that solicitors normally organise. If you are instructing a Leeds conveyancing lawyer they might be able to arrange energy assessments due to their contacts with long established Leeds energy assessors
Is it the case that all Leeds conveyancing solicitors on the Barclays conveyancing panel are governed by the SRA?
As solicitors, in order to be on the Barclays conveyancing panel they would need to be overseen by the SRA. Many lenders do permit licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such firms would be governed by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.
After shopping around on the internet I have found a Leeds conveyancing practitioner having made sure that they are on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?
Clydesdale will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Clydesdale will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. You may wish to consider appointing your own Leeds surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller.
four months have elapsed following my purchase conveyancing in Leeds took place. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £150,000 when infact I paid £215,000. Why the discrepancy?
The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the property from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.
Due to the guidance of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in Leeds before retaining conveyancers. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold aspect to the house. The surveyor has said that some lenders tend refuse to grant a loan on a flying freehold home.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Bank of Scotland has different requirements for example to Halifax. If you call us we can look into this further with the appropriate bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Leeds. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Leeds to see if the conveyancing will be more expensive.
I have recently realised that I have Sixty One years left on my lease in Leeds. I now want to extend my lease but my freeholder is can not be found. What should I do?
On the basis that you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be extended by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have made all reasonable attempts to locate the lessor. On the whole an enquiry agent may be useful to carry out a search and to produce a report which can be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a conveyancer in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Leeds.
Leasehold Conveyancing in Leeds - Sample of Questions you should ask before buying
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Most Leeds leasehold apartments will have a service bill for maintenance of the building levied on behalf of the freeholder. Should you acquire the property you will have to pay this amount, normally periodically accross the year. This may vary from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built blocks. There will also be a rentcharge for you to pay annual, this is usually not a exorbitant sum, say approximately £50-£100 but you should to enquire it because on occasion it could be many hundreds of pounds. You should want to discover as much as you can concerning the company managing the block as they will affect your use and enjoyment of the property. Being a leasehold owner you are often in the clutches of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to practical issues like the tidiness of the communal areas. Ask other people what they think of their management. On a final note, be sure you discover the dates that you are obliged pay the service charge to the managing agents and precisely what you get for your money. This question is helpful as a) areas could result in problems for the block as the common areas may start to deteriorate where services are not paid for b) if the leasehold owners have an issue with the managing agents you will wish to have all the details