I am purchasing a property without a mortgage in Brentwood. I have been residing for the last 20 years in Brentwood. Conveyancing searches are a lot of money. As I know the area and road very well must I have all the conveyancing searches?
Provided that you do not need a home loan, then almost all of the Brentwood conveyancing searches are optional. Your lawyer will try and steer you, no-doubt strongly, that you should have searches completed, but he is duty bound to do this. Do take into account; if you are going to sell the house in the future, it will be of importance to your prospective buyer what the searches disclose. Sometimes properties with no practical issues can still show up detrimental search results. A competent conveyancing solicitor in Brentwood should be able to give you some sensible guidance in this regard.
When will exchange of contracts happen for purchase conveyancing in Brentwood and do I need to attend the lawyers branch?
Where you are local to our conveyancing solicitors in Brentwood you are welcome to attend to sign documents. However, the firms we work with offer a national conveyancing service and give just as diligent and professional a job for you when communicating with you by post or email. The signing of the sale agreement is not the point of no return. A signed contract is just a prerequisite for the conveyancer to address the formalities when the time is right, which is ordinarily shortly after signing. The procedure is is usually a five minute process, although where a long "chain" is in play, since the process requires the relevant party's solicitor (not necessarily a conveyancing solicitor in Brentwood)to be in the office available at the end of the phone to exchange contracts.
The Brentwood conveyancing lawyers that just started acting on my purchase in Brentwood have without warning shut down. I chose them because I needed a solicitor on the UBS conveyancing panel and my previous Brentwood lawyer was not. I paid them £170 on account. What are my options?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the UBS 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 may be able to help.
I purchased my flat on 5 January and the transaction details is not yet on the land registry website. Any reason for this? My conveyancing solicitor in Brentwood said it would be recorded inside ten days. Are titles in Brentwood particularly slow to register?
As far as conveyancing in Brentwood is concerned, registration is no quicker or slower than anywhere else in England and Wales. As opposed to being determined by geographic area, timescales can vary according to who lodges the application, whether it is in order and whether the Land registry communicate with any third persons or bodies. At present in the region of 80% of submission are fully dealt with within 12 days but some can be subject to protracted delays. Registration is effected once the new owner has moved in to the premises thus 'speed' is not typically top priority yet if it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your solicitor could contact the land registry and explain the circumstances.
My wife and I purchased a leasehold house in Brentwood. Conveyancing and Accord Mortgages Ltd mortgage went though with no issue. I have received a letter from someone claiming to own the freehold. It included a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1998. The conveyancing practitioner in Brentwood who acted for me is not around. What should I do?
The first thing you should do is contact HMLR to make sure that this person is indeed the new freeholder. It is not necessary to instruct a Brentwood conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for a few pound. You should note that in any event, even if this is the rightful landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.
I have tried to negotiate informally with with my landlord to extend my lease without any joy. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal decide on such matters? Can you recommend a Brentwood conveyancing firm to represent me?
You certainly can. We are happy to put you in touch with a Brentwood conveyancing firm who can help.
An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Brentwood flat is 37 Lodge Court High Street in November 2013. the decision of the LVT was that the premium to be paid for the new lease was £25,559 This case related to 1 flat. The unexpired term as at the valuation date was 57.5 years.
My son is about to join the property ladder, he had his mortgage in principle. After the seller agreed the offer on the apartment we contacted the building society to progress the mortgage application. We were shocked to learn that banks do not accept all property lawyer, they must be on their panel, is this right?
Banks tend to imposes restrictions either the type or the number of conveyancing practices on their approved list of lawyers. Typical examples of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that lenders have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any Brentwood conveyancer on their panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, conveyancing is not their speciality. To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime? Unlikely.