My fiance and I are planning to buy a home in London and have appointed a London conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Clydesdale have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our London conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent the purchaser's lender. 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 lender 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own London solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
Is it realistic for conveyancing in London to be done inside 10 days?
First, If you are under time constraints for your conveyancing we would recommend that your conveyancer is familiar with the location as they will have local connections and insight. It is even conceivable that they could have handled otherhomes in the same street. Therefore consider using a London conveyancing lawyer. In addition, be sure that the lawyer is on the member panel. It is claimed that 18% of London conveyancing deals are frustrated or jeopardised after finding out that a purchaser’s lawyer was not on their mortgage lender’s list of approved solicitors. This can often result in the transaction being delayed by as much as 21 days. It is understood that this issue affects in the region of 100,000 home moves annually. Almost all London conveyancing firms can not represent certain lenders so do check as early as possible.
Please explain the implications if my lawyer’s firm is suspended from the RBS Solicitor panel ahead of completing my conveyancing in London?
The first thing to point out is that, this is very unlikely to happen. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have to instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by a regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit at a cost.
Just had an offer accepted on a new build flat in London. Conveyancing is a frightening process at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. What sort of enquires would be asked in new build conveyancing.
Here is a sample of a few leasehold new build enquiries that you may expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in London
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Please provide evidence that the form of Lease proposed has been approved by the Land Registry. The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme. The Lease must contain a provision on behalf of the Vendor to pay the service charges in respect of unoccupied units in order to ensure that all services can be provided. There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. Will control of the Management Company (if any) be handed over to purchasers on completion of the last sale or earlier?
Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in London from the perspective of expediting the sale process?
- Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in London can be reduced where you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers’ solicitors. You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but you should verify this via your conveyancers. A buyer’s lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the lease term is below 75 years. In the circumstances it is 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 hold a share in a the freehold, you should make sure that you have the original share document. Organising a new share certificate can be a lengthy process and delays many a London conveyancing deal. If a new share is needed, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity. If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved prior to the flat being put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where a dispute is unresolved. You may need to swallow your pride and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled.
I am the leaseholder of a ground-floor 1950’s flat in London. In the absence of agreement between myself and the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the premium due for a lease extension?
Where there is a missing freeholder or if there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to decide the premium.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement matter before the tribunal for a London property is 20 Avonwick Road in July 2013. The Tribunal was dealing with an application under Section 26 of the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 for a determination of the freehold value of the property. It was concluded that the price to be paid was Fifteen Thousand Nine Hundred and Seventy (£15,970) divided as to £8,200 for Flat 20 and £7,770 for Flat 20A This case affected 1 flat. The remaining number of years on the lease was 73.26 years.
We are in the middle of buying a property in London. Conveyancing solicitor has called to say the title is "Leasehold". Should this adversely affect the salability of the property?
London conveyancing does not usually involve leasehold houses. The key consideration here is the length of lease and the ground rent. If there are hundred of years years remaining with a peppercorn rent, it's essentially freehold, so it’s unlikely to impact the value too much.
At the other extreme, if it's, say, 50 years it will have a adverse effect on the value, and most likely wouldn't be mortgageable. The remaining lease term and ground rent will be set out in the lease provided to your conveyancer.