My wife and I are looking to acquire a flat in Suffolk and have appointed a Suffolk conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Santander have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Suffolk lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
If you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent the purchaser's lender. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer should contact your mortgage company and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Suffolk lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
At what point will exchange of contracts happen for sale conveyancing in Suffolk and do I need to be at the solicitors office?
If you are local to one of the conveyancing solicitors in Suffolk you are invited in to sign documents. That being said, the law practices we recommend provide countrywide coverage for conveyancing and provide just as diligent and professional a job for you when communicating with you by post or email. The executing of the contract is not the point of no return. A signed contract is necessary for the firm to officially exchange at the appropriate time, which will usually be very shortly after signing. The exchange process is nowadays normally dealt with by telephone and can be very rapid, although where a lengthy "chain" is involved, since the process requires the relevant party's solicitor (not necessarily a conveyancing solicitor in Suffolk)to be in the office at the appropriate time.
My colleague recommended that where I am buying in Suffolk I should ask my conveyancer to carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
This is a search is sometimes included in the estimate for your Suffolk conveyancing searches. It is a large report of about 40 pages, listing and detailing important information about Suffolk around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime details, Local Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data regarding Suffolk.
How can the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 impact my commercial premises in Suffolk and how can you help?
The particular law that you refer to gives security of tenure to business lessees, giving them the right to make a request to court for a renewal lease and continue in occupation at the end of the lease term. There are limited grounds where a landlord can refuse a lease renewal and the rules are involved. Fees are different for commercial conveyancing. Suffolk is one of the hundreds of areas of the UK in which our lawyers are based
I need to instruct a conveyancing lawyer in Suffolk for my sale. Is there any facility to review a solicitor's record with the legal regulator?
Anyone may review presented Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) determinations stemming from inquisitions from 2008 onwards. Visit Check a solicitor's record. For details about the period before 1 January 2008, or to check a solicitors record, phone 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and 09.30 - 18.00 Tuesday. For non-uk callers, call +44 (0)121 329 6800. The SRA could monitor call for training requirements.
Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Suffolk from the point of view of expediting the sale process?
- A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Suffolk can be bypassed where you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers’ lawyers. In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Suffolk leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring require a licence from the Landlord approving such alterations. Should you dont have the paperwork to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your conveyancer in the first instance. Many freeholders or managing agents in Suffolk charge for providing management packs for a leasehold property. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management information sought on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most common cause of frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Suffolk. A minority of Suffolk leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying 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 service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers. If you have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should ensure that you hold the original share document. Organising a replacement share certificate is often a lengthy process and frustrates many a Suffolk conveyancing deal. If a duplicate share is needed, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (if applicable) for this sooner rather than later.
Suffolk Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Questions you should consider Prior to Purchasing
-
This information is helpful as a) areas can cause problems in the block as the communal areas may start to deteriorate if maintenance are not paid for b) if the leasehold owners have an issue with the running of the building you will need to have complete disclosure How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their maintenance charge payments?