My apartment in Fenham is up for sale and I have a purchaser. Does the solicitor need to be required to be on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel in order to deal with the discharge of my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their requirements fairly frequently currently.
I'm the sole recipient of my late grandmother’s estate and I have everything in my name now, including the house in Fenham. Conveyancing formalities meant that the Land Registry date was in April. I now wish to sell up. I understand that there is a CML 6 month 'rule', which means that my proprietorship could be considered the same way as if I'd bought the property in April. Will no one buy the property for half a year?
The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ handbook obliges conveyancers to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." By the strict wording you could be affected by that. many lenders would take a practical view as this provision principally exists to identify the purchase and immediately sell or the flipping of properties.
I currently have a mortgage with Coventry BS for my property in Fenham. Conveyancing has been completed 12 months ago. Should I wish to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform Coventry BS?
Your original mortgage agreement with Coventry BS will provide that you need their approval in advance of renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Coventry BS’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Coventry BS directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Coventry BS conveyancing panel firm.
I recently had an offer agreed on an apartment in Fenham. My financial adviser suggested a solicitor. I paid an on account payment of £150. Soon after, the property lawyer called me embarrassingly acknowledging 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.
I require fast conveyancing in Fenham as I have an ultimatum to complete inside one month. Luckily I do not require a mortgage. Can I decline from having conveyancing searches to save money and time?
As you are not getting a home loan you are at liberty not to have searches carried out although no lawyer would advise that you don't. With plenty of history conveyancing in Fenham the following are instances of what can crop up and therefore impact future mortgageability: Refused Planning Applications, Outstanding Fees, Overdue Grants, Railway Schemes,...
I am looking for a conveyancing practitioner in Fenham for my house move. Is there any facility to see a solicitor's complaints history with the legal regulator?
Anyone can review presented Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) decisions resulting from inquisitions from 2008 onwards. Go to Check a solicitor's record. For details about the period before 1 January 2008, or to check a solicitors history, phone 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 any week day save for Tuesday when lines open at 9.30am. International callers, call +44 (0)121 329 6800. The SRA sometimes monitor call for training requirements.
Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Fenham from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?
- A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Fenham can be bypassed where you instruct lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers’ conveyancers. Some Fenham leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers. If you have carried out any alterations to the property would they have required Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Fenham leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or installing wooden flooring calls for a licence issued by the Landlord acquiescing to such works. Should you dont have the paperwork in place do not communicate with the landlord without checking with your conveyancer in advance. If there is a history of any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as historic rather than ongoing. If you have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should ensure that you are holding the original share document. Organising a new share certificate can be a lengthy process and slows down many a Fenham home move. Where a reissued share certificate is necessary, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (if relevant) for this sooner rather than later.
Fenham Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing
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How long is the Lease? Where a Fenham lease has less than 80 years it will impact the salability of the flat. Check with your lender that they are willing to to proceed given the lease term. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will probably require a lease extension sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of what this will be. Remember, in most cases you would be be obliged to have been the owner of the premises for a couple of years before you are entitled to extend the lease. You will want to find out as much as possible about the managing agents as they will either make your life much simpler or problematic. Being a leasehold owner you are often at the mercy of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to day to day matters such as the upkeep of the common parts. Don't be shy to ask prospective neighbours what they think of them. On a final note, find out the dates that you are obliged pay the maintenance charge to the managing agents and specifically what you get for your money.
Do I cancel my mortgage payments with RBS as soon as a completion date for my home sale in Fenham has been agreed?
No, you should maintain meeting any mortgage payments to RBS pending the mortgage being repaid on completion as part of your Fenham conveyancing.