My husband and I are buying a new build apartment in Shenfield and my lawyer is telling me that she is duty bound to the bank to reveal incentives from the seller. The Estate Agents are hassling me to sign contracts and I don't want to prolong the conveyancing. is my lawyer playing by the book?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your solicitor. A precondition to being on a lender panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
My uncle passed away 10 months ago and as sole heir and executor I was left the house in Shenfield. The house had a small mortgage left on it of around £8000. I want to transfer the title deeds into my name whilst I re-mortgage to Lloyds, pay off the mortgage. Is this possible?
Where you plan to refinance then Lloyds will insist on your using a conveyancer on the Lloyds conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your Lloyds conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the Lloyds mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.
A relative recommended that if I am buying in Shenfield I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is usually included in the estimate for your Shenfield conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of about 40 pages, listing and detailing important information about Shenfield around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Shenfield Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information regarding Shenfield.
The deeds to our house are lost. The lawyers who dealt with the conveyancing in Shenfield 10 years ago are no longer around. What are my options?
Nowadays there are copies made of almost everything, and your lawyer should know precisely where to find all the suitable paperwork so you may purchase or sell your house without a hitch. Where copies are not available, your lawyer can arrange cover in the form of insurance or indemnities protecting you against possible claims on your property.
I'm purchasing a new build house in Shenfield with a loan from Bank of Ireland. The developers would not budge the price so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The house builders rep told me not inform my lawyer about this deal as it would put at risk my mortgage with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.
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've recently bought a leasehold flat in Shenfield. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to completion of my purchase?
In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.
If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).
Shenfield Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should consider before Purchasing
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How much is the service charge and ground rent on the property? You will want to discover as much as possible about the company managing the building as they can either make life much easier or much more difficult. As the owner of a leasehold property you are frequently at the mercy of the managing agents from a financial perspective and when it comes to practical matters like the upkeep of the common parts. Enquire of other people what they think of them. On a final note, investigate as to the dates that the service fees are due to the appropriate party and specifically what you get for your money. This question is useful as a) areas could result in problems in the building as the communal areas may begin to deteriorate if maintenance remain unpaid b) if the tenants have a dispute with the managing agents you will need to have full disclosure