Our solicitor has discovered a defect with the lease for the flat we are buying in Cockfosters. The other side have offered title insurance as a workaround. We are content with insurance and will cover the costs. Our property lawyer has advised that he must be satisfied that the mortgage company is content with this solution. Who is the client here, us or the mortgage company ?
Notwithstanding that you have a mortgage offer from the bank does not mean to say that the property will meet their specifications for the purposes of a mortgage. Your lawyer has to ensure that the lease has to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions. You and the lender are the client. The appropriate lender specifications have to be complied with.
It is a dozen years since I acquired my property in Cockfosters. Conveyancing lawyers have just been retained on the sale but I can't find my title documents. Will this cause complications?
Don’t worry too much. First the deeds may be retained by your lender or they could be in the possession of the solicitor who handled the purchase. Secondly in most cases the title will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you own the property by your conveyancing lawyers obtaining current official copies of the land registers. Almost all conveyancing in Cockfosters involves registered property but in the unlikely event that your property is unregistered it is more of a problem but is not insurmountable.
My colleague suggested that if I am buying in Cockfosters I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is occasionally quoted for as part of the standard Cockfosters conveyancing searches. It is a large document of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing significant information about Cockfosters around the property and the people living there. It includes 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 House Prices, Crime details, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information regarding Cockfosters.
The deeds to my home are lost. The conveyancers who did the conveyancing in Cockfosters 10 years ago are no longer around. What are my next steps?
Gone are the days when you need to have the physical deeds to prove you are the registered proprietor of land or premises, as the Land Registry hold details of all registered land or property electronically.
I am purchasing my first flat in Cockfosters benefiting from help to buy. The sellers would not reduce the price so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not disclose to my lawyer about this extras as it would affect my mortgage with the bank. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.
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.
Should I cancel my mortgage payments with Co-operative once a completion date for my home sale in Cockfosters has been set?
You would be well advised to maintain paying any mortgage payments to Co-operative pending the mortgage being discharged from the proceeds of sale as part of your Cockfosters conveyancing.