My partner and I are looking to buy a property in Telford and are in fact using a Telford conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Coventry Building Society have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Telford lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the mortgage company. 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 solicitor 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 and you may continue to use your own Telford solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
Our solicitor has discovered a a legal deficiency with the lease for the flat we are buying in Telford. The other side have put forward title insurance as a workaround. We are happy with insurance and will pay for it. Our property lawyer has advised that he must ensure that the lender is content with this solution. Are we the client or is the lender?
The short answer to your last question is that, notwithstanding the risk of a conflict of interest, you and the lender are the client. Your lawyer must comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions require your lawyer to disclose issues such as defects with the lease so that the bank can be afforded the opportunity to check with their valuer as to the extent that the value of the property is affected. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your lawyer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.
It is is a decade since I purchased my property in Telford. Conveyancing lawyers have recently been appointed on the sale but I can't find the deeds. Will this jeopardise the sale?
You need not be too concerned. Firstly there is a possibility that the deeds will be with your mortgage company or they could be in the possession of the lawyers who acted in your purchase. Secondly in all probability the title will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to prove you own the property by your conveyancing lawyers obtaining current official copies of the land registers. The vast majority of conveyancing in Telford relates to registered property but in the rare situation where your home is unregistered it adds to the complexity but is resolvable.
My grandmother passed away six months ago and as sole heir and executor I was left the house in Telford. The house had a small mortgage left on it of around £8000. I want to transfer the title deeds into my name whilst I re-mortgage to Nationwide, pay off the mortgage. Is this possible?
Where you plan to re-mortgage then Nationwide will insist on your using a conveyancer on the Nationwide conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your Nationwide conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the Nationwide mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.
I'm buying a new build house in Telford with a mortgage from Nationwide Building Society. The sellers would not move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The property agent suggested that I not disclose to my lawyer about this deal as it could adversely affect my mortgage with Nationwide Building Society. Is this normal?.
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.
I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Telford where we have witnessed a few flat sales put at risk due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received contradictory information from local Telford conveyancing firms. Could you shed some light as to whether the vendor of a flat can start the lease extension process for the buyer?
As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.
An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the purchaser.
I bought a basement flat in Telford, conveyancing was carried out 10 years ago. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Equivalent properties in Telford with a long lease are worth £260,000. The ground rent is £45 yearly. The lease terminates on 21st October 2099
With 75 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £8,600 and £9,800 plus costs.
The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to supply the actual costs without more comprehensive due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action placing reliance on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.