I require conveyancing for an apartment in a fairly new development (five years built) in St Asaph. Almost all the appartments are already occupied. Is it strictly necessary to order conveyancing searches for my conveyancing in St Asaph?
Where you are obtaining a mortgage, your lender will need some (many) of the searches so you'll have no choice. If not, then St Asaph conveyancing searches are for you to decide upon. No doubt your conveyancer, will ’encourage’, perhaps strongly, that you should have the searches done, but he or she has a professional duty to do this. One thing to bear in mind; if you are likely to sell the house one day, it may be of interest to your future buyer what the searches contain. Sometimes houses with no practical issues can still throw up adverse search results. But if you choose to instruct your lawyer to proceed without searches then your lawyer will have to follow your instructions or you will need to swap to an alternative solicitor for your conveyancing in St Asaph.
Finally the sale completed on my house in St Asaph last November yet the purchaser is Skype messaging me complaining that their conveyancer needs to hear from mine. What should have happened now that I have sold?
Post completion of your house sale your conveyancer should send the transfer deeds and all of the paperwork to the purchaser's solicitors. Where relevant, your solicitor should also send confirmation that the mortgage has been paid off to the buyers solicitors. There is unlikely to be post completion tasks specific conveyancing in St Asaph.
The St Asaph conveyancing lawyers that I recently instructed on my house acquisition in St Asaph have suddenly closed. I only went with them because I had to have a solicitor on the Co-operative conveyancing panel and my family St Asaph lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take one hundred and fifty pounds for searches. What should be my next steps?
If you have an estate agent involved then inform them straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Co-operative conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors should be in a position to assist.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up as part of conveyancing in St Asaph?
Covenants that are restrictive in nature can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in St Asaph. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’
I'm purchasing a new build house in St Asaph with a mortgage from Barclays . The developers refused to move on the price so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The sale representative advised me not to tell my solicitor about the extras as it may adversely affect my mortgage with the bank. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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 considering instructing an online conveyancing practitioner rather than a St Asaph conveyancing firm. Any advice?
There are advantages of being able to attend a local St Asaph conveyancing solicitor such as
- signing papers and and when necessary
- sometimes being able to see someone face-to-face can make a huge difference, particularly for more complex conveyancing
- the ability to complain if things need to addressed
When checking estimates, look carefully for hidden extras. Most decent St Asaph high street solicitors give an all-inclusive price. Often online agents appear to offer discounted fees, but have hidden 'extras' in the small print.