My partner and I are purchasing a newly built apartment in Sidcup and my solicitor is advising me that she has to the lender to reveal incentives from the developer. I am under pressure to exchange and my preference is not to delay deal. Is my lawyer right?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancer. A precondition to being on a bank panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook provisions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
At what point does exchange of contracts happen for purchase conveyancing in Sidcup and am I required to be at the lawyers branch?
Where you are round the corner to one of the conveyancing solicitors in Sidcup you are invited in to sign contracts. However, the law practices we work with provide a nationwide conveyancing service and provide as equally diligent and professional a job for you when dealing with you digitally. The signing of the contract is not the important part. A signed contract is just a prerequisite for the solicitor to exchange contracts at the appropriate time, which is ordinarily shortly after signing. The procedure is nowadays normally dealt with by telephone and can be very rapid, although where an extended "chain" is in the mix, since the process requires the relevant party's solicitor (not necessarily a conveyancing solicitor in Sidcup)to be in the office at the appropriate time.
A colleague recommended that if I am purchasing in Sidcup I should ask my conveyancer to 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 sometimes included in the estimate for your Sidcup conveyancing searches. It is a large report of about 40 pages, listing and detailing significant information about Sidcup around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Sidcup Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information regarding Sidcup.
I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £235,500 and identified one near me in Sidcup I like with amenity areas and railway links in the vicinity, however it only has 51 years on the lease. There is not much else in Sidcup for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a short lease?
If you require a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term may be a potential deal breaker. Discount the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing owner has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you could request that they commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this matter.
I am looking for a conveyancing lawyer in Sidcup for my house move. Is there any facility to review a firm’s record with the legal regulator?
You may read published Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) decisions resulting from investigations commenced on or after Jan 2008. Visit Check a solicitor's record. To find information about the period before 1 January 2008, or to check a firm's record, phone 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 any week day save for Tuesday when lines open at 9.30am. International callers, use +44 (0)121 329 6800. The SRA sometimes recorded telephone calls for training requirements.
I have checked your search tool I can't find the lawyer I was hoping to instruct as being on the lender conveyancing panel. My lawyer has said that they are on the mortgage company 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 bank 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 bank solicitor panel.