Having sold my house in Merseyside last October but the buyer keeps whats apping daily complaining that his lawyer needs to hear from mysolicitor. What are the post completion sale formalities now that I have sold?
After completion of your house sale your solicitor should deliver the transfer documentation and all additional paperwork to the purchaser's lawyers. Where appropriate, your lawyer should also evidence that the home loan has been redeemed to the buyers solicitors. There are no post completion tasks unique to conveyancing in Merseyside.
Have just purchased a repossessed house at auction in Merseyside. Conveyancing is required. What are my next steps?
Now that you are legally committed yourself to purchase you must instruct a conveyancing lawyer quickly as you are faced with a pending a drop dead date to complete the purchase. Every auction property will ordinarily have a corresponding legal pack. This will include most,if not all of the paperwork that your solicitor will need. If you have purchased leasehold premises the auction papers should provide a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and other conveyancing paperwork pertinent to leasehold premises. You should give this to your appointed conveyancing solicitor at the earliest opportunity. You also need to ensure that that you have the requisite funding in order to complete the transaction on the set completion date.
I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Merseyside. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an upfront payment of £150. A few days later, the property lawyer contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the TSB conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the TSB panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
Having read lots of mortgage guides, I note that it is considered advisable to get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local Merseyside solicitor - who is on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. Is that normal?
Leeds Building Society will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Leeds Building Society 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 Merseyside 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.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up during conveyancing in Merseyside?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in Merseyside. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’
I opted to have a survey done on a property in Merseyside prior to appointing lawyers. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold element to the property. My surveyor advised that some mortgage companies may not grant a mortgage on such a property.
It depends who your proposed lender is. HSBC has different requirements for example to Halifax. If you contact us we can look into this further via the relevant bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Merseyside. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in Merseyside especially if they are familiar with such properties in Merseyside.
Back In 2005, I bought a leasehold house in Merseyside. Conveyancing and Clydesdale mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1998. The conveyancing practitioner in Merseyside who previously acted has long since retired. What should I do?
The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that the individual claiming to own the freehold is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. There is no need to incur the fees of a Merseyside conveyancing practitioner to do this as it can be done on-line for £3. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.
Merseyside Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should consider Prior to Purchasing
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How many years remain on the lease? Where a Merseyside lease has fewer than 80 years it will impact the marketability of the property. It is worth checking with your mortgage company that they are happy with remaining years on the lease. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will most likely have to extend the lease at some point and you need to have some idea of what this would cost. For most Merseysidelease extensions you would need to own the property for 24 months in order to be legally able to extend the lease. Its a good idea to find out as much as you can concerning the managing agents as they will affect your use and enjoyment of the property. As the owner of a leasehold property you will be at the mercy of the managing agents from a financial perspective and when it comes to daily matters like the cleanliness of the communal areas. Enquire of other people what they think of their service. Finally, investigate as to the dates that the service charges are due to the appropriate party and specifically what you get for your money.
One month into a sale of a flat in Merseyside. Conveyancing is fine but we are being charged a fortune from the landlord. To date we have forked out £225 for a leasehold management pack and then another £200 plus VAT for responses to queries supplied by the purchaser's lawyer.
Neither you or your conveyancer will have any impact over the extent of the fee for this information however the average fee for the information for Merseyside leasehold premises is £380. When it comes to Merseyside conveyancing sales it is usual for the vendor to cover the costs. The landlord or their agents are under no legal obligation to address these questions most will be content to do so - albeit often at high prices out of proportion to the work involved. Regretfully there is no statute that mandates fixed charges for administrative tasks. Neither is there any set time limit by which they are required to supply the information.