Me and my partner are acquiring our first house. The conveyancer has messagedto ask if we would like to purchase additional conveyancing searches. Frankly we in the dark as to what's necessary for conveyancing in Poundbury
The scope of Poundbury conveyancing searches depends primarily on the property, the location, the possibility of any of these risks, your knowledge of the locality and risks, your overall attitude to risk. What matters is that you properly understand what information each search could give you. Then you can decide if you consider that you need that search. Should you be unsure, ask your conveyancer to explain.
Completed the sale of my flat in Poundbury last February yet the purchaser is calling me to moan that their lawyer needs to hear from mine. What are the post completion sale formalities now that I have sold?
Following your sale your conveyancer should send the transfer documentation and all of the paperwork to the purchaser's conveyancer. Depending on the transaction, your conveyancer must also evidence that the mortgage has been redeemed to the purchasers lawyers. There are no post completion procedures just for conveyancing in Poundbury.
Forgive me if this question is silly but I am unexperienced as a 1st time buyer of a garden flat in Poundbury. Do I collect the keys to the house on completion from my solicitor? If so, I will instruct a High Street conveyancing solicitor in Poundbury?
There is no need to visit the lawyers office on the day of completion. Your solicitors will arrange to send the completion advance to the vendor’s lawyers, and once they have received this, you will be able to collect the keys from the Estate Agents and start moving into the property. Usually this occurs between 1 and 3pm.
We had chosen solicitors based in Poundbury on the UBS solicitor panel. They are now charging me a further amount for handling the UBS mortgage. Is this an additional conveyancing fee specified by UBS?
As unfair as it may appear, as long as it’s in their Terms of Engagement or estimate then yes your property lawyer may charge a fee for this. This fee is not dictated by UBS but by your Poundbury lawyer. Plenty of firms on the UBS panel will quote ’dealing with mortgage’ fee but some practices incorporate it on their overall fee.
I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Poundbury. My financial adviser suggested a lawyer. I paid an on account payment of £225. A couple of days later, the conveyancer contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Coventry BS 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 Coventry BS 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.
I'm purchasing a new build house in Poundbury with a loan from TSB. The developers would not reduce the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of fixtures and fittings instead. The property agent told me not to tell my conveyancer about this side-deal as it may jeopardize my mortgage with the bank. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder 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 am using a search engine for the term cheap conveyancing in Poundbury it shows results of numerous solicitorsin the vicinity. How do I determine which is the right conveyancing solicitor for my move?
The ideal way of choosing a suitable conveyancer is through a personal recommendation, so seek the counsel of friends and relatives who have bought a property in Poundbury or a respected estate agent or mortgage broker. Charges for conveyancing in Poundbury differ, so it's advisable to request at least four costs illustrations from different law firms. Make sure that you clarify what costs in the quote includes.
What advice can you give us when it comes to choosing a Poundbury conveyancing firm to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?
If you are instructing a solicitor for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Poundbury conveyancing firm) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We suggest that you speak with two or three firms including non Poundbury conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. The following questions might be helpful:
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What are the costs for lease extension conveyancing? How familiar is the practice with lease extension legislation?
Poundbury Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Questions you should consider before buying
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It is important to be aware if fixing the lift or some other major work is pending to be shared by the leaseholders and will dramatically increase the the service charges or necessitate a one time payment. For most Poundbury leaseholds the cost for major works are not wrapped into the service charges, albeit that there some managing agents in Poundbury require leasehold owners to pay into a sinking fund and this is used to offset against larger works. Who are the managing agents?