Our solicitor has discovered a a legal deficiency with the lease for the property we are buying in Silvertown. The seller’s lawyers have put forward title insurance as a workaround. We are content with insurance and will cover the costs. Our solicitor has advised that he must check that the lender is happy with this solution. Who is the client here, us or the lender?
The short answer to your last question is that, notwithstanding the risk of a conflict of interest, you and the bank are the client. Your property lawyer must comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook provisions. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions require your lawyer to disclose issues such as defects with the lease so that the mortgage company can be afforded the opportunity to check with their valuer as to the extent that the value of the property is affected. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your conveyancing practitioner will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.
Are the Silvertown conveyancing solicitors identified as being on the Santander conveyancing panel, together with their details provided by Santander?
Silvertown conveyancing firms themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Santander conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Santander directly.
What is the best way to check that the solicitor carrying out my conveyancing in Silvertown is on the bank’sconveyancing panel? I am looking to avoid the situation of having one lawyer for me and one for Yorkshire Building Society thus paying £192.00 in additional conveyancing charges.
Please do take advantage of the find a conveyancing panel solicitor tool on this site. Pick the mortgage company and type ‘Silvertown’ or your location and you will discover numerous solicitors located in Silvertown or near you.
I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £305k and identified one close by in Silvertown I like with a park and transport links nearby, the downside is that it only has 52 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Silvertown suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a lease with such few years left?
Should you require a mortgage the shortness of the lease will be an issue. Discount the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you could request that they commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this.
I am looking at a couple of apartments in Silvertown both have in the region of forty five years remaining on the lease term. Will this present a problem?
There is no doubt about it. A leasehold flat in Silvertown is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the marketability of the premises. The majority of purchasers and banks, leases with under 75 years become less and less attractive. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a residence with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Silvertown conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease. They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.
I have attempted and failed to negotiate with my landlord for a lease extension without getting anywhere. Can a leaseholder make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal? Can you recommend a Silvertown conveyancing firm to represent me?
Absolutely. We can put you in touch with a Silvertown conveyancing firm who can help.
An example of a Lease Extension case for a Silvertown residence is 46 Credon Road in January 2014. On 11 September 2013 Deputy District Judge Price sitting at the Bow County Court made a vesting order that the freeholder surrender his lease and be granted a new lease of the Premises on such terms as may be determined by the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).The appropriate sum as concluded by the Tribunal was £7225 This case affected 1 flat. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 69.77 years.
Sixweeks into a sale of a flat in Silvertown. Conveyancing solicitors are doing their job but we are being charged a fortune by the freeholder. So far we have forked out £275 for a leasehold management information and then another £200 plus VAT for answers to questions supplied by the purchaser's property lawyer.
Neither you or your lawyer will have any sway over the extent of the charges for this information however the typical fee for the information for Silvertown leasehold property is £350. When it comes to Silvertown conveyancing deals it is customary for the owner to pay for these costs. The freeholder or their agents are under no statutory obligation to address such questions although many will be willing to do so - albeit often at exorbitant prices where the fees bear little relation to the work involved. Regretfully there is no law that requires fixed fees for administrative tasks. There is no legal time limit by which they are obliged to issue answers.