My partner and I are looking to buy a house in Tadworth and have appointed a Tadworth conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Barnsley Building Society have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Tadworth solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 bank 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Tadworth solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
I am acquiring a property without a mortgage in Tadworth. I have been residing for the previous 20 years in Tadworth. Conveyancing searches are a lot of money. Given that I know the area and road intimately must I have all the conveyancing searches?
In the absence of a home loan, then almost all of the Tadworth conveyancing searches are non-obligatory. Your conveyancer will try and steer you, no-doubt strongly, that you should have searches carried out, but he has a professional duty to take that path of guidance. One thing to take into account; if you are likely to sell the house one day, it may be of interest to your future purchaser what the searches determine. On occasion premises with no practical issues can still throw up adverse search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in Tadworth should be able to give you some sensible guidance in this regard.
I have recentlybeen informed that Arc property Solicitors have closed. They carried out my conveyancing in Tadworth for a purchase of a leasehold apartment 18 months ago. How can I check that the property is in my name in the name of the previous owner?
The quickest way to check if the property is registered to you, you can carry out 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 Tadworth conveyancing specialists.
I am purchasing my first flat in Tadworth benefiting from help to buy. The developers would not reduce the price so I negotiated 6k of fixtures and fittings instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not to tell my solicitor about this extras as it would jeopardize my mortgage with Bank of Ireland. 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.
I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £235,500 and identified one round the corner in Tadworth I like with amenity areas and station nearby, however it's only got 51 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Tadworth for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a lease with such few years left?
If you need a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be an issue. Discount the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current owner has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you may request that they commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer concerning this.
Can you offer any advice when it comes to choosing a Tadworth conveyancing practice to deal with our lease extension?
If you are instructing a conveyancer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Tadworth conveyancing practice) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of conveyancing. We advise that you talk with several firms including non Tadworth conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. If the firm is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. The following questions could be useful:
-
How experienced is the firm with lease extension legislation?
I have tried to negotiate informally with with my landlord to extend my lease without getting anywhere. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on such matters? Can you recommend a Tadworth conveyancing firm to assist?
if there is a missing freeholder or where there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the LVT to decide the premium.
An example of a Lease Extension case for a Tadworth residence is 33 The Maisonettes Alberta Avenue in June 2014. the Tribunal decided that the premium payable for the grant of a new lease be the sum of £20,680 (Twenty Thousand six hundred and eighty pounds). This case related to 1 flat. The unexpired term was 60.43 years.