We are selling our house in Chatham. Does the conveyancing practitioner have to be required to be on the Skipton conveyancing panel in order to deal with paying off my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Skipton 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 requirements fairly frequently currently.
I'm in the process of looking at flats in Chatham and I am about to put in an offer. Should I already have a property lawyer appointed at this point? I will be getting a mortgage with Leeds Building Society.
It would be sensible to instigate your search sooner rather than later. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and forward their contact information on to the EA. Given that you are obtaining a mortgage with Leeds Building Society, make sure you remember to check that your lawyer is on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel.
The mortgage over my property is with Aldermore for my property in Chatham. Conveyancing was finalised a year ago. If I am intending to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Aldermore?
Your original mortgage agreement with Aldermore will provide that you need their approval in advance of letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Aldermore’s mortgage conditions. It may be that Aldermore will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Aldermore directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Aldermore conveyancing panel firm.
I was told three weeks ago that my mortgage has been agreed to by Santander. Is it usual for Santander to only issue the offer once my solicitor in Chatham is approved on their conveyancing panel? Santander have asked my solicitor to see a copy of their Professional Indemnity Insurance Schedule.
Mortgage companies tend not to not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Santander to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Santander conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
Will my solicitor be making enquiries regarding flooding as part of the conveyancing in Chatham.
Flooding is a growing risk for solicitors dealing with homes in Chatham. Some people will purchase a property in Chatham, fully aware that at some time, it may be flooded. However, aside from the physical damage, where a property is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, adequate building insurance, or sell the property. There are steps that can be taken during the course of a house purchase to forewarn the buyer.
Solicitors are not best placed to impart advice on flood risk, but there are a various checks that can be initiated by the buyer or on a buyer’s behalf which should figure out the risks in Chatham. The standard information given to a buyer’s lawyer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) incorporates a usual inquiry of the vendor to discover if the premises has suffered from flooding. In the event that the premises has been flooded in past and is not disclosed by the seller, then a purchaser may bring a claim for damages as a result of such an misleading reply. The purchaser’s conveyancers may also conduct an environmental report. This should reveal if there is any known flood risk. If so, additional inquiries should be initiated.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly identified during conveyancing in Chatham?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Chatham. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’
I'm buying a new build house in Chatham with the aid of help to buy. The builders would not budge the amount so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The property agent told me not disclose to my conveyancer about the extras as it may affect my loan with the bank. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.
I am employed by a reputable estate agency in Chatham where we have experienced a number of flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have received inconsistent advice from local Chatham conveyancing firms. Can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?
As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.
An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the purchaser.
Chatham Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Questions you should consider Prior to Purchasing
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Best to be warned if fixing the lift or some other significant cost is due in the foreseeable future that will be shared by the leasehold owners and will materially impact the level of the service costs or necessitate a one time payment. Many Chatham leasehold flats will incur a service charge for maintenance of the block invoiced on behalf of the freeholder. Where you purchase the apartment you will have to pay this charge, normally in instalments throughout the year. This can vary from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built buildings. There will also be a ground rent for you to pay annual, ordinarily this is not a exorbitant figure, say approximately £25-£75 but you should to enquire as sometimes it can be prohibitively expensive. You should be aware that where the lease has less than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the value of the apartment. Check with your bank that they are content with remaining years on the lease. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will probably need a lease extension sooner rather than later and you need to have some idea of what this will be. For most Chathamlease extensions you would need to own the property for two years in order to be eligible to carry out a lease extension.