My lawyer has identified a a legal deficiency with the lease for the flat we are buying in Leicester. The other side have offered title insurance as a workaround. We are happy with insurance and will pay for it. Our property lawyer has advised that he must ensure that the lender is content with this solution. Are we the client or is the bank?
The short answer to your last question is that, notwithstanding the potential for a conflict of interest, you and the lender are the client. Your property lawyer must comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook provisions. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions require your lawyer to disclose issues such as defects with the lease so that the mortgage company can be afforded the opportunity to check with their valuer as to the extent that the value of the property is affected. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your conveyancing practitioner will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.
My home in Leicester is up for sale and I have a purchaser. Does my conveyancer need to be required to be on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel in order to deal with the discharge of my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their requirements fairly frequently currently.
The deeds to my house can not be found. The solicitors who dealt with the conveyancing in Leicester 5 years ago have long since closed. What are my options?
As long as you have a registered title the information relating to your ownership will be held by HMLR with a Title Number. It is possible to conduct a search at the Land Registry, locate your property and obtain current copies of the property title for a small fee. If the title is Leasehold then the Land Registry will also normally retain a file duplicate of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be retrieved for twenty pounds.
About to purchase a new build flat in Leicester. Conveyancing is necessary evil at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. Can you give me some examples of some of the questions asked in new build conveyancing.
Set out below is a sample of a few leasehold new build questions that you should expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Leicester
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Please supply a car parking plan. Please confirm the Lease plans are surveyor prepared. Will control of the Management Company (if any) be handed over to purchasers on completion of the last sale or earlier? If there are lifts in the building, please confirm that the owners of flats on the ground and basement floors will not be required to contribute towards the cost of maintenance and renewal. Please supply evidence that the form of Lease proposed has been approved by the Land Registry.
I only have Seventy years remaining on my lease in Leicester. I now wish to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. 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 submit an application 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. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. In some cases an enquiry agent should be useful to conduct investigations and prepare a report which can be used as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court covering Leicester.
I own a 2 bed flat in Leicester, conveyancing was carried out 3 years ago. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Comparable properties in Leicester with over 90 years remaining are worth £197,000. The ground rent is £55 invoiced annually. The lease expires on 21st October 2082
With only 56 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £29,500 and £34,000 as well as costs.
The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to advice on a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. Do not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.
What can I do where I am not happy with the conveyancing practitioner who handled our conveyancing in Leicester?
Occasionally the level of service you receive is not as you expect, and is is a fact of life that occasionally things do go wrong. Nevertheless there is recourse if you were dissatisfied with your conveyancing in Leicester. This varies from trying to resolve matters directly with them, through to reporting a conveyancing practitioner to their regulator. If things still aren’t sorted out you may consider enlisting the help of the Legal Ombudsman.