My partner and I are looking to buy a home in Church Village and are in fact using a Church Village conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Barclays have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Church Village lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is normal for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. 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 lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Church Village lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
Can you explain why leasehold purchase conveyancing in Church Village is more expensive?
In short, leasehold conveyancing in Church Village and elsewhere usually requires extra hours of investigation compared to freehold conveyancing. This includes reviewing the lease, communicating with the landlord about the service of applicable notices, procuring up-to-date service charge and management information, obtaining the landlord’s consents and reviewing management accounts. The obligations on both the landlord and the tenant in the lease need to be studied by the buyer’s conveyancing team and read from beginning to end – no matter how many different leaseholders have owned the lease since it was first granted.
The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build flat in Church Village. Conveyancing is daunting 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 conveyancing.
Here is a sample of a selection of leasehold new build questions that you can expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Church Village
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The Lease must contain a provision on behalf of the Vendor to pay the service charges in respect of unoccupied units in order to ensure that all services can be provided. Will the freehold then be transferred for a nominal consideration (not exceeding £100) to the Management Company? If there are lifts in the building, please confirm that the owners of flats on the ground and basement floors will not be required to contribute towards the cost of maintenance and renewal. Please supply a car parking plan. There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants.
Given that I am about to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on 3 bedroom house in Church Village I would like to talk to a solicitor concerning thehouse move prior to appointing the firm. Can this be arranged?
This is something that we recommend - we would be pleased to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you first talking to the solicitor due to be conducting your conveyancing in Church Village.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - every client is unique individual, not a file number. The law firms that we put you in touch with believe that the fees you are quoted for your conveyancing in Church Village should be the amount on the final invoice that you end up paying.
We are a fortnight into a leasehold purchase having been recommend to a firm by the selling agent to carry out the conveyancing in Church Village. I am am extremely disappointed with the quality of service. Could you you assist me in finding new conveyancers?
A conveyancer would need to be really poor in order to consider replacing them. Has your loan offer been generated? In the event that it has you must inform them of the new lawyer and get the offer are re-sent. Your new conveyancer should be on the lenders panel to avoid escalating charges and frustration. That should be your starting point. The find a solicitor tool can assist you in finding a bank approved conveyancer for your conveyancing in Church Village
Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Church Village from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?
- A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Church Village can be reduced if you get in touch lawyers as soon as your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ conveyancers. If you hold a share in a the Management Company, you should make sure that you have the original share certificate. Arranging a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming process and frustrates many a Church Village home move. If a duplicate share is required, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this sooner rather than later. A minority of Church Village leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet 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 buyers or their solicitors. You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but you should double-check via your lawyers. A buyer’s conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is below 80 years. In the circumstances it is important at an early stage that you consider whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale. In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Church Village leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence from the Landlord acquiescing to such alterations. Should you fail to have the approvals to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without checking with your lawyer first.
Leasehold Conveyancing in Church Village - Examples of Queries Prior to buying
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For most Church Village leaseholds the outlay for major works tend not to be included within service charges, albeit that some managing agents in Church Village require tenants to contribute towards a reserve fund and this is used to offset against major works. Make sure you investigate if the the lease includes any adverse restrictions in the lease. For example some leases prohibit pets being allowed in certain buildings in Church Village. If you love the flatin Church Village but your cat is not allowed to make the move with you then you will be faced difficult determination. Plenty Church Village leasehold flats will have a service bill for maintenance of the building set on behalf of the management company. Should you buy the flat you will have to pay this liability, usually periodically during the year. This can vary from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large communal grounds. In all likelihood there will be a rentcharge to be met yearly, this is usually not a large amount, say approximately £25-£75 but you need to check as on occasion it can be many hundreds of pounds.