My fiance and I are hoping to acquire a flat in Thornaby and are in fact using a Thornaby conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Bank of Ireland have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Thornaby solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers 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 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 as you are at liberty to use your preferred Thornaby lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
What does my ID and proof of funds have anything to do with my conveyancing in Thornaby? Is this really warranted?
To satisfy the Money Laundering Regulations any Thornaby conveyancing firm will require proof of identity in all conveyancing transactions. This is usually satisfied by provision of a passport and an original bank statement or utility bill evidencing where you reside.
Under Money Laundering Regulations, conveyancers are required to investigate not just the identity of conveyancing clients but also the source of fund that they receive in respect of any matter. Refusal to disclose this will lead to your solicitor cancelling their retainer with you, as clearly this will cause a conflict between the set Regulations and a refusal to disclose.
Your property lawyers will have an obligation to make a disclosure to the appropriate authorities should they consider that any monies received by them may contravene the Anti-terror and anti-money-laundering rules.
My wife and I purchasing a 4 bedroom semi-detached house in Thornaby. The intention is to carry out an extension to the side at the house.Will the conveyancing process involve investigations to see if these works are prohibited?
Your conveyancer will check the deeds as conveyancing in Thornaby will occasionally identify restrictions in the title documents which prohibit categories of works or need the permission of a 3rd party. Certain extensions call for local authority planning permissions and approval in accordance building regulations. Some areas are designated conservation areas and special planning restrictions apply which often prevent or affect extensions. You should check these issues with a surveyor prior to committing yourself to a purchase.
After weeks of negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in Thornaby. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their conveyancer. I paid an advanced payment of £225. Shortly after, the property lawyer contacted me to say that they were not on the Co-operative conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Co-operative panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
My sealed bid on a semi in Thornaby has been accepted, the owners do nevertheless have a dependent purchase. The vendors have put an offer on somewhere, but it’s not yet agreed to, and are looking at other properties booked. I have chosen a local conveyancing solicitor in Thornaby. What do I do now? When do I get the mortgage application with Lloyds going?
It is normal to have concerns where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to incur costs too early (mortgage application is in the region of one thousand pounds, then survey, Thornaby conveyancing search fees, etc). First, you must ensure that your property lawyer is on the Lloyds conveyancing panel. As to the next steps this very much depends on the specifics of your case, desire for this property and on the state of the market. In a rising market the majority of home buyers will apply for a home loan with Lloyds and pay for the valuation and only if it was satisfactory would they request their property lawyer to move forward with searches.
I'm buying my first flat in Thornaby with the aid of help to buy. The developers refused to budge the price so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The property agent advised me not disclose to my solicitor about this deal as it could affect my loan with the bank. 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.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £305k and found one round the corner in Thornaby I like with open areas and station in the vicinity, however it only has 49 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Thornaby for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a lease with such few years left?
Should you require a home loan the shortness of the lease will likely be an issue. Reduce the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing owner has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you could request that they commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this matter.
I am a negotiator for a long established estate agent office in Thornaby where we have experienced a few leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given contradictory information from local Thornaby conveyancing solicitors. Could you confirm whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?
Provided that the seller has been the owner 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. The benefit of this is 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 prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.
An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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 am the registered owner of a garden flat in Thornaby, conveyancing was carried out in 2008. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Equivalent flats in Thornaby with over 90 years remaining are worth £216,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 charged once a year. The lease expires on 21st October 2094
You have 69 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £9,500 and £11,000 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.
The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to provide the actual costs in the absence of detailed due diligence. Do not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.