I am buying a property without a mortgage in Rutland. I have been residing for the last Seventeen years in Rutland. Conveyancing searches are a lot of money. Given that I have knowledge of the road and vicinity intimately should I not bother getting the solicitor to do all the conveyancing searches?
If you not getting a home loan, then the vast majority of the Rutland conveyancing searches are at your discretion. Your solicitor will try and sway you, perhaps strongly, that you should have searches completed, but he is duty bound to do this. One thing to bear in mind; if you are likely to sell the house one day, it could be of interest to your future purchaser what the searches reveal. There are plenty of instances where premises with functional issues can still throw up negative search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in Rutland will be able to give you some practical advice here.
I am the registered owner of a freehold premises in Rutland but nevertheless pay rent, why is this and what is this?
It’s unusual for properties in Rutland and has limited impact for conveyancing in Rutland but some freehold properties in England (particularly common in North West England) pay an annual sum known as a Chief Rent or a Rentcharge to a third party who has no other legal interest in the land.
Rentcharge payments are usually between £2.00 and £5.00 per year. Rentcharges date back hundreds of years, but the Rent Charge Act 1977 barred the establishment of new rentcharges post 1977.
Previous rentcharges can now be redeemed by making a one off payment under the Act. Any rentcharges that are still in existence in 2037 will be extinguished.
My wife and I are in the throws of viewing apartments in Rutland and I am now considering a potential offer. Is it too early to have a solicitor in place? I am planning to take a home loan with Coventry BS.
You should start requesting conveyancing quotes from solicitors ASAP. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and pass their details on to the estate agent. Given that you are seeking a mortgage with Coventry BS, ask your prospective lawyers if they are on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel otherwise they can't do the mortgage legal work.
I recently had an offer agreed on an apartment in Rutland. My mortgage broker recommended their conveyancers. I paid an on account payment of £175. Not long after, the lawyer contacted me to say that they were not on the Co-operative 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 Co-operative 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 had an offer accepted on a property in Rutland on 31/10/2025, valuation was booked 4 days later, all came back fine. Solicitor instructed, so all that was missing was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to Clydesdale and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel. Are Clydesdale entitled to hold back the Mortgage pending the lawyer being on the approved list?
A lender would not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Clydesdale to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
Should our conveyancer be making enquiries regarding flooding during the conveyancing in Rutland.
Flooding is a growing risk for conveyancers dealing with homes in Rutland. There are those who buy a property in Rutland, completely expectant that at some time, it may be flooded. However, leaving to one side the physical damage, if a property is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, adequate building insurance, or dispose of the property. Steps can be carried out during the course of a property purchase to forewarn the purchaser.
Lawyers are not best placed to impart advice on flood risk, however there are a number of checks that may be undertaken by the purchaser or by their conveyancers which should give them a better understanding of the risks in Rutland. The standard completed inquiry forms sent to a purchaser’s solicitor (where the Conveyancing Protocol is adopted) contains a usual question of the seller to determine if the premises has historically flooded. If the premises has been flooded in past which is not revealed by the vendor, then a purchaser may issue a claim for damages resulting from an inaccurate answer. A buyer’s solicitors may also carry out an enviro report. This should higlight if there is any known flood risk. If so, further investigations will need to be initiated.
I am employed by a busy estate agent office in Rutland where we have witnessed a number of flat sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Rutland conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?
Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser need not have to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.
An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the purchaser.
Rutland Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries Prior to buying
-
Many Rutland leasehold flats will incur a service bill for maintenance of the block set on behalf of the freeholder. Where you acquire the property you will have to pay this contribution, usually periodically during the year. This may be anything from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built blocks. In all probability there will be a rentcharge to be met annual, ordinarily this is not a large figure, say around £25-£75 but you should to check it because sometimes it could be prohibitively expensive. Best to be warned if fixing the lift or some other significant cost is pending that will be shared by the tenants and could well dramatically impact the level of the maintenance charges or result in a specific payment. This information is important as a) areas may cause problems in the block as the common areas may begin to deteriorate if services are not paid for b) if the leasehold owners have a dispute with the running of the building you will wish to have full disclosure
Having used your search tool I can't find the lawyer I was hoping to instruct as being on the mortgage company conveyancing panel. My lawyer has said that they are on the lender approved panel. How can I be sure given that they are not listed on your directory?
Not all firms are yet listed on our lender panel search tool which is still relatively new. Law firms are listing on a daily basis and it is probably the case that your lawyer is on the mortgage company conveyancing lawyer and you should probably take them at their word. Please do feel free to suggest that they completing their listing on our site as it would only cost them £1 a month to list themselves as being on the lender solicitor panel.