My husband and I are planning to buy a house in Thornaby on Tees and have appointed a Thornaby on Tees conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. National Westminster Bank have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Thornaby on Tees lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors 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 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Thornaby on Tees lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
Our lawyer has identified a a problem with the lease for the flat we are purchasing in Thornaby on Tees. The other side have put forward defective title insurance as a solution. We are happy with insurance and will pay for it. Our solicitor says that he must ensure that the bank is willing to move forward with this solution. Who is the client here, us or the bank?
Notwithstanding that you have a mortgage offer from the mortgage company does not mean to say that the property will meet their provisions for the purposes of a mortgage. Your lawyer has to ensure that the lease has to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook provisions. You and the bank are the client. The appropriate lender requirements have to be complied with.
Do I need to pay for insurance to protect me from financial exposure to chancel repairs when purchasing a house in Thornaby on Tees?
Unless a prior acquisition of the premises completed after 12 October 2013 you could assume that solicitors handling conveyancing in Thornaby on Tees to remain encouraging a chancel search and or chancel repair liability insurance.
Me and my brother purchased a 4 bedroom Edwardian property in Thornaby on Tees. Conveyancing practitioner represented me and Accord Mortgages Ltd. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are two entries: the first freehold, another for leasehold under the exact same address. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You should review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Thornaby on Tees and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they sell they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with purchasers. You can also question the position with the conveyancing lawyer who carried out the work.
I am a negotiator for a long established estate agent office in Thornaby on Tees where we see a few flat sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Thornaby on Tees conveyancing firms. Could you clarify whether the owner of a flat can commence the lease extension formalities 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 commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.
Alternatively, it may be possible 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 buyer.
Thornaby on Tees Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should ask before Purchasing
-
If a Thornaby on Tees lease has less than 80 years it will affect the salability of the apartment. Check with your mortgage company that they are content with remaining years on the lease. A short lease means that you will probably need a lease extension at some point and you need to have some idea of how much this would cost. For most Thornaby on Teeslease extensions you would need to own the premises for 24 months before you are entitled to exercise a lease extension. The prefered form of lease arrangement is where the freehold interest is owned by the leaseholders. In this arrangement the leaseholders benefit from control and although a managing agent is usually retained where the building is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent acts for the leaseholders themselves. Does the lease have onerous restrictions?
What is the average legal costs for conveyancing in Thornaby on Tees?
The average fee last year for conveyancing in Thornaby on Tees was just under one thousand five hundred pounds excluding Land Tax and HM Land Registry fees.