I purchased a freehold house in Swansea yet charged rent, why is this and what is this?
It is rare for properties in Swansea and has limited impact for conveyancing in Swansea but some freehold properties in England (particularly common in North West England) pay an annual sum known as a Chief Rent or a Rentcharge to a third party who has no other legal interest in the land.
Rentcharge payments are usually between £2.00 and £5.00 per year. Rentcharges date back many centuries, but the Rent Charge Act 1977 barred the generation of new rentcharges from 1977 onwards.
Old rentcharges can now be extinguished by making a lump sum payment under the Act. Any rentcharges that are still in existence after 2037 is to be extinguished.
The Swansea conveyancing firm that just started acting on my purchase in Swansea have suddenly shut down. I only went with them because I needed a solicitor on the Aldermore conveyancing panel and my family Swansea lawyer was not. I wrote them a cheque for two hundred pounds in advance. What do I do now?
If you have an estate agent involved then let them know immediately so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. 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 Aldermore 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 lawyers should be in a position to help.
A colleague advised me that in buying a property in Swansea there could be a number of restrictions as to what one can do in terms of external alterations to a property. Is this right?
There are anumerous of properties in Swansea which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to external variations. Part of the conveyancing in Swansea should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.
Are all Swansea Conveyancing Quality Solicitors on the Co-operative conveyancing panel?
A selection of banks and building societies now make use of CQS as the starting point for Panel membership such as HSBC and Santander. CQS accreditation however is no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. That being said,the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for solicitor practices wishing to remain on their approved list of conveyancing solicitors.
The mortgage over my property is with Barclays for my property in Swansea. Conveyancing has been completed months ago. In the event that I decide to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Barclays?
Barclays must be informed of your intention before letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Barclays’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies 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 Barclays directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Barclays conveyancing panel firm.
I have justbecome aware that Stirling Law have been shut down. They carried out my conveyancing in Swansea for a purchase of a freehold house 9 months ago. How can I be sure that the property is in my name in the name of the previous owner?
The quickest method to see if the property is registered to you, you can make a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Swansea conveyancing specialists.
I am buying a new build house in Swansea benefiting from help to buy. The developers would not reduce the price so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The estate agent advised me not to tell my solicitor about this extras as it could impact my loan with the bank. Should I keep quiet?.
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 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.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold element on a house I have offered on a fortnight ago in what was supposed to be a quick, no chain conveyancing. Swansea is the location of the property. Is there any guidance you can impart?
Flying freeholds in Swansea are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Swansea you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds thoroughly. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Swansea may determine that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold residence.