I am acquiring a house for cash in Alcester. I have been residing for the previous 20 years in Alcester. Conveyancing searches are a lot of money. Given that I have knowledge of the area and road very well must I have all the conveyancing searches?
Provided that you do not need a mortgage, then almost all of the Alcester conveyancing searches are optional. Your lawyer will try and sway you, perhaps strongly, that you should have searches completed, but she is duty bound to do this. One thing to take into account; if you are intend to dispose of the house in the future, it could be of relevance to your prospective buyer what the searches contain. On occasion houses with day to day issues can still show up detrimental search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in Alcester should provide you some helpful advice in this regard.
The Alcester conveyancing firm that I recently instructed on my purchase in Alcester have suddenly closed. I only went with them because I had to have a solicitor on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel and my previous Alcester lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take £195 for searches. What do I do now?
If you have an estate agent involved then let them know straight away so that they advise the vendors 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 should appoint new lawyers that are on the Yorkshire BS 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 should be in a position to help.
My colleague suggested that if I am purchasing in Alcester I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is usually included in the estimate for your Alcester conveyancing searches. It is a large report of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing important information about Alcester around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Alcester Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime statistics, Local Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information about Alcester.
I purchased a terraced Victorian house in Alcester. Conveyancing solicitor acted for me and The Royal Bank of Scotland. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and I saw two entries: the first freehold, the second leasehold with the matching property. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You need to assess 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 Alcester and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with purchasers. You can also question the situation with the conveyancing practitioner who carried out the work.
I own a leasehold flat in Alcester. Conveyancing and Alliance & Leicester mortgage went though with no issue. I have received a letter from someone saying they have taken over the reversionary interest in the property. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1996. The conveyancing solicitor in Alcester who previously acted has long since retired. Any advice?
The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that the individual purporting to own the freehold is indeed the registered owner of the freehold reversion. It is not necessary to instruct a Alcester conveyancing lawyer to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for a few pound. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.
I am the registered owner of a studio flat in Alcester, conveyancing was carried out 10 years ago. 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? Comparable flats in Alcester with over 90 years remaining are worth £216,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 yearly. The lease finishes on 21st October 2095
You have 69 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £9,500 and £11,000 plus professional fees.
The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other concerns that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.
My husband and I are purchasing a 2 bedroom flat in Alcester. When we first instructed conveyancer, we were told they were on all major UK mortgage company panels. The mortgage broker contacted us yesterday to advise that they don't appear to be on the Barclays approved list. Should that be true, what should we do? Should we just choose a new conveyancer that is on their approved list or do we pay for separate representation, with Barclays appointing their own approved lawyer.
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchaser’s lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. In order to act for a bank or building society a conveyancing practitioner has to be on that lender's list of approved lawyers. An application has to be made by the conveyancer to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict conditions which the conveyancing practitioner has to fulfill. Some mortgage companies now insist their panel firms to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your conveyancer should call Barclays to find out if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on Barclays's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Alcester lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another conveyancing practitioner into the mix.