My husband and I are planning to acquire a flat in Blakedown and have instructed a Blakedown conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Birmingham Midshires have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Blakedown conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
If you are buying a property with the assistance of 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 Blakedown lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
My nephew is in the process of securing a new build apartment in Blakedown with a home loan from Nationwide. His lawyer has advised him of a delay in completing the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. What is this document - I have never come across this before?
The document is intended to provide information to the main parties involved in the transaction. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the Nationwide conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the surveyor when asked. The developer will be required to start the process by downloading the form and completing it. The form will therefore need to be available for the valuer at the time of his or her site visit. The form should be sent to the Nationwide conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.
The Blakedown conveyancing solicitors that just started acting on my house acquisition in Blakedown have without warning shut down. They were on acting for me because I needed a solicitor on the Skipton conveyancing panel and my previous Blakedown lawyer was not. I wrote them a cheque for two hundred pounds in advance. What are my options?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then let them know straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. 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 Skipton 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.
A relative suggested that if I am purchasing in Blakedown I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
A search of this type is usually included in the estimate for your Blakedown conveyancing searches. It is a large document of about 40 pages, listing and detailing important information about Blakedown around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information concerning Blakedown.
I have todaybeen informed that Wolstenholmes have closed. They carried out my conveyancing in Blakedown for a purchase of a freehold house 9 months ago. How can I establish that the property is registered correctly in the name of the former proprietor?
The easiest method to check if the property is in your name, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Blakedown conveyancing specialists.
I have just started marketing my ground floor apartment in Blakedown. Conveyancing has not commenced, but I have just had a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – what should I do?
The sensible thing to do is pay the maintenance contribution as you normally would because all ground rent and maintenance payments will be allotted on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the subsequent invoice date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process.
I acquired a 1 bedroom flat in Blakedown, conveyancing formalities finalised 9 years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Similar properties in Blakedown with over 90 years remaining are worth £195,000. The ground rent is £45 levied per year. The lease terminates on 21st October 2089
With only 64 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to range between £14,300 and £16,400 as well as professional fees.
The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.