I am progressing with the sale of my ground floor flat in Alresford and the EA has just text me to advise that the buyers are appointing a new solicitor. I am told that this is due to the fact that the lender will only work with solicitors on their approved list. Why would a big named lender only deal with specific lawyers rather the firm that they want to appoint for their conveyancing in Alresford ?
Mortgage companies have always had an approved set of law firms that can represent them, but in the past few years big names such as HSBC, have considered and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have acted for them for more than 15 years.
Banks justify this action to a rise in fraud as the reason for the pruning – criteria have been tightened as a smaller panel is easier to maintain. No lender will say how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society claims that it is hearing daily from firms that have been removed from panels. Plenty of firms are unaware that they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. The purchasers are not going to have any impact on this.
It is a dozen years since I acquired my home in Alresford. Conveyancing solicitors have recently been retained on the sale but I am unable to find the title documents. Will this cause complications?
You need not be too concerned. Firstly there is a chance that the deeds will be with the mortgage company or they could still be with the solicitor who handled your purchase. Secondly in all probability the property will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to prove you own the property by your conveyancing lawyers obtaining current official copies of the land registers. Nearly all conveyancing in Alresford relates to registered property but in the rare situation where your home is unregistered it adds to the complexity but is not insurmountable.
I am looking for a flat up to £195,000 and found one round the corner in Alresford I like with amenity areas and railway links in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 61 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Alresford in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake buying a short lease?
Should you need a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be problematic. Discount the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you could ask them to start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor concerning this matter.
Hoping to buy a property located in Alresford and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Alresford. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Alresford area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?
Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Alresford. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found
I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Alresford. Before I get started I would like to find out the remaining lease term.
If the lease is registered - and almost all are in Alresford - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title. For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.
Alresford Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Questions you should ask Prior to buying
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The answer will be important as a) areas could cause problems in the block as the communal areas may start to deteriorate if repairs are not paid for b) if the tenants have a dispute with the managing agents you will want to know about it What is the length of the lease? The majority of Alresford leasehold properties will be liable to pay a service bill for maintenance of the building levied by the freeholder. Should you buy the property you will have to pay this amount, usually in instalments during the year. This could vary from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built blocks. There will also be a ground rent for you to pay yearly, normally this is not a large figure, say around £25-£75 but you need to check as on occasion it can be many hundreds of pounds.
I have recently placed an offer on a leasehold flat in Alresford and the mortgage adviser that we are using suggested his lawyer. He quoted £900 excluding VAT and disbursements. Does this sound expensive?
Don't just go on a single quote. You should seek like-for-like quotes for your conveyancing in Alresford. Then pick one that you trust and just as important, is on the approved panel of the mortgage company that you are sourcing your mortgage from.