The conveyancer who dealt with my last purchase has given a fee calculation of £995 for no move no fee conveyancing in St Johns. I’m looking to sell a Georgian detached home for £275,000. This sounds over the top. Is it above what I should be paying for conveyancing in St Johns?
The charges are a little high. If you shop around you may be able to get the conveyancing a bit cheaper by perhaps £100 plus VAT. That being said, you couldlive to rue choosing an a cheaper solicitor. Remember to check the firm can also act for your bank. You can use our comparison tool to locate a St Johns conveyancing practice on the banks approved list of lawyers which can often include conveyancing solicitors in St Johns.
My fiance and I intend to remortgage our penthouse in St Johns with Bank of Ireland. We have a son 18 who lives with us. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the apartment is repossessed. I have two concerns (1) Is this document specific to the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we purchased 3 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?
On the face of it your lawyer has done nothing wrong as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to Bank of Ireland. This is solely used to protect Bank of Ireland if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave. It does not impact your son’s right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of Bank of Ireland had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.
It is a dozen years since I purchased my home in St Johns. Conveyancing solicitors have just been retained on the sale but I am unable to locate my deeds. Is this a problem?
You need not be too concerned. Firstly the deeds may be retained by the lender or they could still be with the solicitor who acted in the purchase. Secondly in most cases the title will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you own the property by your conveyancing lawyers obtaining up to date copy of the land registers. Nearly all conveyancing in St Johns involves registered property but in the rare situation where your property is unregistered it adds to the complexity but is resolvable.
The deeds to my home can not be found. The solicitors who did the conveyancing in St Johns 4 years ago have long since closed. What are my options?
As long as the title is registered the information relating to your proprietorship will be documented by the Land Registry under a Title Number. It is easy to carry out a search at the Land Registry, find your property and secure up to date copies of the Registered Entries for less than a fiver. Where the property is Leasehold then the Land Registry will also normally hold a certified duplicate of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be obtained for twenty pounds.
I am buying my first flat in St Johns with the aid of help to buy. The developers refused to move on the price so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not inform my lawyer about the deal as it could affect my loan 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 UK Finance website. UK Finance 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.
Is planning permission necessary to convert a house into multiple flats in St Johns? This has taken place to a property opposite to my house in St Johns and was not aware of it happening until after the works were complete.
Planning consent is needed for splitting a single house in St Johns into flats but possibly not for converting back to single dwelling-house so, in answer to your query, yes.