My Conveyancer in Caversham is not listed on the Nottingham Building Society Conveyancing Panel. Can I still use my prefered solicitor notwithstanding that they are excluded from the Nottingham Building Society approved list?
The limited options available to you here include:
- Complete the purchase with your preferred Caversham lawyers but Nottingham Building Society will need to use a lawyer on their panel. This will inevitably rack up the overall conveyancing fees and result in delays.
- Get a new solicitor to act in the conveyancing, not forgetting to check they are on the Nottingham Building Society panel
When it comes to lenders such as Leeds Building Society, do Caversham property lawyers face an annual charge to be on the conveyancing panel?
We are unaware of any mortgage company fees to register on their list of approved firms, although some do levy an administration charge to deal with the processing of the conveyancing panel submission.
We had instructed solicitors located in Caversham on the Nationwide solicitor panel. They are now charging me an additional fee for handling the Nationwide mortgage. Is this a supplemental conveyancing fee specified by Nationwide?
As unfair as it may seem, as long as it’s in their Terms of Engagement or estimate then yes your lawyer can charge a fee for this. The fee is not set by Nationwide but by your Caversham conveyancer. Numerous firms on the Nationwide panel will charge ’dealing with mortgage’ fee but plenty of firms incorporate it on their overall fee.
I am due to exchange contracts on my apartment. I had a double glazing fitted in May 2008, but did not receive a FENSA certificate or Building Regulation Certificate. My purchaser’s mortgage company, Coventry BS are being a right pain. The Caversham solicitor who is on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel is saying indemnity insurance will be fine but Coventry BS are insisting on a building regulation certificate. Why do Coventry BS have a conveyancing panel if they don't accept advice from them?
It is probably the case that Coventry BS have referred the matter to their valuer. The reason why Coventry BS may not want to accept indemnity insurance is because it does not give them any reassurance that the double glazing was correctly and safely installed. The indemnity insurance merely protects against enforcement action which is very unlikely anyway.
The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build flat in Caversham. Conveyancing is necessary evil at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. Can you give me some examples of some of the questions asked in new build legal work.
Set out below are examples of a few leasehold new build enquiries that you should expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Caversham
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Please confirm the Lease plans are surveyor prepared. Will the freehold then be transferred for a nominal consideration (not exceeding £100) to the Management Company? Where there is an Undertaking being granted there is the risk of forfeiture of the Headlease subject to relief if one or more of the Underlessees are willing to accept the original Head Lessee’s obligations as otherwise relief will be denied to the Underlessees. The only alternatives are the Head Lessor agreeing not to forfeit the Headlease or the Head Lessee guaranteeing to the Underlessees that it will not be in breach of the Headlease. There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme.
I decided to have a survey completed on a property in Caversham in advance of appointing lawyers. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold element to the house. The surveyor has said that some lenders will refuse to give a mortgage on such a property.
It depends who your proposed lender is. HSBC has different requirements for example to Halifax. If you contact us we can look into this further with the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Caversham. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Caversham to see if the conveyancing will be more expensive.
I am looking into buying my first house which is in Caversham and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Caversham. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Caversham area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?
Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Caversham. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found
Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Caversham from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?
- A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Caversham can be avoided if you appoint lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and ask them to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers’ representatives. Some Caversham leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying 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 the benefit of shareholding in the freehold, you should make sure that you have the original share document. Obtaining a duplicate share certificate can be a lengthy formality and frustrates many a Caversham home move. If a new share is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (where relevant) for this sooner rather than later. If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved prior to the flat being put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge 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 clearly preferable to reveal the dispute as historic rather than unsettled. You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be wise to verify this via your lawyers. A buyer’s conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to proceed with the purchase of a leasehold property the remaining number of years is below 75 years. In the circumstances it is important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.
Caversham Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Questions you should ask before buying
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What is the yearly maintenance fee and ground rent? Many Caversham leasehold flats will incur a service bill for maintenance of the building levied on behalf of the management company. If you acquire the apartment you will have to meet this amount, usually quarterly accross the year. This can be anything from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large common areas. There will also be a rentcharge for you to pay annual, this is usually not a exorbitant amount, say around £50-£100 but you should to enquire it because sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds. What restrictions are contained in the Caversham Lease?