I was recommended to a solicitor who has sent a quote for £1200 for fixed fee conveyancing in St Helens. I am hoping to sell a Edwardian house for £150,000. Are the quoted fees excessive? Is it above the average fee for conveyancing in St Helens?
The estimate does seem a tad steep. If you shop around you might decrease the fees slightly by perhaps £100 plus VAT. That being said, you maylive to regret opting for an an unknown conveyancer. Remember to ensure that the conveyancer can also act for your mortgage company. Do make use of our comparison tool to find a St Helens conveyancing practice on the banks approved list of lawyers which can often include conveyancing solicitors in St Helens.
Our St Helens lawyer has discovered an inconsistency when comparing the information in the valuation survey and what is in the legal papers for the property. My lawyer has advised that he needs to check that the bank is OK with this discrepancy and is still content to lend. Is my conveyancer’s course or action legitimate?
Your conveyancer must comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook specifications which do require that your lawyer disclose any incorrect assumptions in the lender’s valuation report and the legal papers. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your lawyer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.
My bid for a property was accepted at auction in St Helens. Conveyancing is needed. What are my next steps?
Now that you are exchanged you must retain a conveyancing solicitor as a matter of urgency as you are facing a pending a fixed date to complete the deal. All auction property will ordinarily have a bespoke auction set of papers. This will include evidence of title and search results. In the case of leasehold premises the auction papers may provide a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and other conveyancing paperwork relating to a leasehold property. You must hand this to your appointed conveyancing solicitor as soon as possible. Do make sure that you have funds in place to complete the transaction on the set completion date.
We are getting a further advance on our home loan from Leeds Building Society as we want to conduct alterations to our house in St Helens. Do we need to choose a local St Helens solicitor on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel to handle the paperwork?
Leeds Building Society don't usually appoint firms on their approved list of lawyers to deal with the formalities. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Leeds Building Society list.
The mortgage over my property is with Yorkshire BS for my property in St Helens. Conveyancing has been completed a year ago. If I am intending to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Yorkshire BS?
Yorkshire BS must be informed of your intention before letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Yorkshire BS’s mortgage conditions. It may be that Yorkshire BS will allow you to rent out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Yorkshire BS directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel lawyer.
I used Stirling Law a few years ago for my conveyancing in St Helens. Now, I need the documents but the law firm is no longer operating. What do I do?
You should call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in St Helens of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously hired, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
I am purchasing a new build house in St Helens with a mortgage from Barnsley Building Society. The sellers would not reduce the amount so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of fixtures and fittings instead. The house builders rep told me not disclose to my conveyancer about this side-deal as it could jeopardize my mortgage with the lender. 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.
Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in St Helens from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?
- Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in St Helens can be avoided if you get in touch lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ lawyers. In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? St Helens leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such alterations. If you dont have the consents in place you should not contact the landlord without checking with your lawyer first. You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but you should double-check via your lawyers. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the lease term is less than 80 years. It is therefore important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale. A minority of St Helens leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers.
I invested in buying a garden flat in St Helens, conveyancing having been completed in 2001. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Similar flats in St Helens with an extended lease are worth £201,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 charged once a year. The lease terminates on 21st October 2090
With only 65 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £13,300 and £15,400 plus legals.
The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more comprehensive investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.