I am selling my house in Chalk Farm. Does my solicitor need to be required to be on the Aldermore conveyancing panel in order to deal with paying off my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Aldermore 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 panel criteria fairly frequently at the moment.
I have paid off my mortgage with UBS. I assume I don't need a Chalk Farm conveyancing practitioner on the UBS panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?
If you have finished paying off your UBS mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the UBS mortgage from the register. UBS, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where UBS has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- UBS has instructed the Land Registry to do so
I have decided to exercise my right to buy my property in Chalk Farm off the council. I have a mortgage offer with HSBC. Conveyancing is new to me. Can I proceed without a solicitor easily? I think we can but we keep being told I should use one. Any advice?
It is not advisable to proceed with a house purchase without a solicitor. The council's solicitor are not acting for you. You need a solicitor for a number reasons. One of which is to verify what plans the Council have for repairs and refurbishment for the next five years. Many leaseholders have been stung for contributions of thousands of pounds. In any event, if you are getting a mortgage with HSBC, you will need to appoint a solicitor on the HSBC conveyancing panel.
At last I have had an offer on a maisonette in Chalk Farm accepted, but there is a chain. The sellers have offered on a property, however it’s not yet tied up, and have viewings of other flats in the pipeline. I have instructed a nearby conveyancing solicitor in Chalk Farm. What do I do now? When should I get the mortgage application with Barclays going?
It is usual to have concerns where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to incur expenses prematurely (home loan application is approx £1k, then valuation, Chalk Farm conveyancing search fees, etc). The first course of action is to check that your conveyancing practitioner is on the Barclays conveyancing panel. Concerning the subsequent stages this very much depends on the uniqueness of your transaction, motivation for this property and on the state of the market. In a buoyant market many purchasers will apply for the mortgage with Barclays and pay for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they request their conveyancer to move forward with the conveyancing in Chalk Farm.
Should our lawyer be asking questions about flooding as part of the conveyancing in Chalk Farm.
The risk of flooding is if increasing concern for solicitors carrying out conveyancing in Chalk Farm. Plenty of people will acquire a property in Chalk Farm, fully aware that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical damage, if a property is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, adequate insurance cover, or sell the property. Steps can be carried out as part of the conveyancing process to forewarn the purchaser.
Lawyers are not best placed to give advice on flood risk, but there are a numerous searches that may be undertaken by the buyer or by their solicitors which will give them a better appreciation of the risks in Chalk Farm. The standard completed inquiry forms sent to a buyer’s conveyancer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) incorporates a usual inquiry of the seller to determine whether the property has suffered from flooding. If flooding has previously occurred and is not disclosed by the vendor, then a buyer could bring a claim for damages stemming from an misleading answer. A buyer’s solicitors may also commission an enviro report. This should higlight whether there is any known flood risk. If so, further investigations will need to be conducted.
Hoping to buy a property located in Chalk Farm and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Chalk Farm. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Chalk Farm area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?
Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Chalk Farm. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found
Last January I purchased a leasehold flat in Chalk Farm. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?
Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.
If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).
Having spent years of dialogue we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Chalk Farm. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?
Most certainly. We are happy to put you in touch with a Chalk Farm conveyancing firm who can help.
An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Chalk Farm property is Flat 2 27 Mackeson Road in December 2012. The Tribunal assessed the value of the lease extension premium at £35,435 and rounded the figure to £35,500 This case related to 1 flat. The unexpired term was 64.77 years.
Why can't I complete our conveyancing in Chalk Farm on Easter Monday?
Because on completion the funds needs to be transferred electronically between the banks of the purchaser and seller's property lawyer and currently this can only happen on a business day. It is not possible to complete on a saturday or sunday either.