It is a dozen years since I acquired my home in Stevenage. Conveyancing solicitors have recently been appointed on the sale but I am unable to locate my deeds. Is this a problem?
Don’t worry too much. First there is a chance that the deeds will be retained by your lender or they may be in the possession of the conveyancers who oversaw the purchase. Secondly in most cases the land will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to prove you own the property by your conveyancing solicitors procuring current official copies of the land registers. Nearly all conveyancing in Stevenage relates to registered property but in the unlikely event that your property is not registered it adds to the complexity but is not insurmountable.
My property lawyer in Stevenage has never been on on the Santander Conveyancing Panel. Is it possible for me to use my family solicitor notwithstanding that they are not on the Santander list of approved lawyers?
The limited options open to you here include:
- Complete the purchase with your existing Stevenage solicitors but Santander will need to use a lawyer on their panel. This will result in additional overall legal charges as well as result in delays.
- Get a new solicitor to act in the conveyancing, obviously checking they are Santander approved.
- Persuade your Santander based solicitor to seek to join the Santander panel
Various internet forums that I have visited warn that are the main reason for stalling in Stevenage house deals. Is that correct?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) published findings of research by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not feature within the most frequent causes of delays in the conveyancing process. Local searches are not likely to be the root cause of slowing down conveyancing in Stevenage.
My wife and I have a 4 bedroom Edwardian house in Stevenage. Conveyancing lawyer represented me and Leeds Building Society. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and I saw a couple of entries: the first freehold, the second leasehold under the exact same property. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You need to review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Stevenage and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with buyers. You can also question the position with your conveyancing solicitor who conducted the purchase.
Is it best to go with a Stevenage conveyancing solicitor who is local to the property I am buying? I have an old university friend who can carry out the legal formalities however they are based 200kilometers away.
The primary upside of using a high street Stevenage conveyancing firm is that you can attend the office to execute documents, hand in your identification documents and apply pressure on them where appropriate. Having local Stevenage know how is a bonus. That being said nothing is more important than finding someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If you know people who used your friend and the majority were impressed that must surpass using an unfamiliar Stevenage conveyancing solicitor solely due to them being local.
20 days into purchasing a property in Stevenage. Conveyancing solicitor has phoned to say the property is "Leasehold". Does this impact our Natwest valuation?
Stevenage conveyancing does not in most situations involve leasehold houses. The key factor here is the length of lease and the ground rent. If it's 999 years with a peppercorn rent, it's virtually freehold, so it’s unlikely to affect the value significantly.
At the other extreme, if it's, say, Sixty years it will have a significant impact on the value, and probably wouldn't be mortgageable. The length of lease and ground rent will be specified in the lease provided to your conveyancing practitioner.