I am hoping to move into my new home in Dursley next Friday. I have now been asked to send a copy of my building insurance schedule by my solicitor as he says that he has to check this in his capacity as lawyer for the mortgage company. What risks does the lender expect the insurance to cover?
All property lawyers on acting for banks would need to check that the following risks are covered fire; lightning; aircraft; explosion; earthquake; storm; flood; escape of water or oil; riot; malicious damage; theft or attempted theft; falling trees and branches and aerials; subsidence; heave;landslip;collision;accidental damage to underground services;professional fees, demolition and site clearance costs; and public liability to anyone else. There are some other issues such as the level of excess that are set out in a lender’s Part 2 conditions. These obligations are not limited to conveyancing in Dursley.
It is a dozen years since I bought my home in Dursley. Conveyancing solicitors have just been retained on the sale but I can't locate the title deeds. Is this a problem?
You need not be too concerned. Firstly the deeds may be with your lender or they could stored with the solicitor who handled your purchase. Secondly in most cases the land will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to prove you are the registered owner by your conveyancing solicitors acquiring up to date copy of the land registers. Nearly all conveyancing in Dursley involves registered property but in the unlikely event that your home is not registered it is more of a problem but is resolvable.
I'm the single beneficiary of my late father’s will and I have everything in my name alone, including the house in Dursley. Conveyancing formalities meant that the Land Registry date was in December. I now wish to sell up. I do know about the Mortgage Lenders six month 'rule', meaning my property ownership could be considered the same way as though I had purchased the house in December. Will no one buy the property for half a year?
The CML handbook instructs conveyancers to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." By the strict wording you might be impacted by that. Most lenders would take a practical view as this clause primarily exists to pick up on the purchase and immediately sell or the wholesaling and assigning of property.
We previously appointed conveyancing lawyers located in Dursley on the Virgin Money solicitor panel. They have just invoiced me a separate charge for dealing with the Virgin Money mortgage. Is this an additional conveyancing fee specified by Virgin Money?
As unfair as it may seem, as long as it’s in their Terms of Engagement or estimate then yes your conveyancer can charge a fee for this. The fee is not set by Virgin Money but by your Dursley property lawyer. Some firms on the Virgin Money panel will charge ’dealing with mortgage’ fee and others do not.
After shopping around on the internet I have found a Dursley solicitor having checked that they are on the Santander conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?
Santander will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Santander will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. You may wish to consider appointing your own Dursley surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller.
I am looking into buying my first house which is in Dursley and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Dursley. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Dursley area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?
Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Dursley. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found
We're first time buyers - had an offer accepted, yet the agent advised that the owners will only move forward if we use their recommended lawyers as they are insisting on an ‘expedited deal’. Our preferred option is to instruct a local solicitor with experience of conveyancing in Dursley
We suspect that the seller is not behind this requirement. Should the owner desire ‘a quick sale', alienating a motivated purchaser is likely to cause more damage than good. Bypass the agents and go straight to the sellers and make the point that (a)you are genuine purchasers (b)you are excited to move forward, with mortgage lined up © you are chain free (d) you wish to move quickly (e)but you will continue to instruct your own,trusted Dursley conveyancing firm - rather thanthe ones that will give their estate agent a commission or meet his conveyancing targets pre-set by corporate headquarters.
I work for a long established estate agency in Dursley where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales derailed as a result of leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Dursley conveyancing solicitors. Can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension process 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 start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.
Alternatively, it may be possible 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 buyer.
Leasehold Conveyancing in Dursley - A selection of Questions you should consider before buying
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Many Dursley leasehold apartments will incur a service charge for the upkeep of the block levied by the freeholder. Should you purchase the flat you will have to meet this charge, normally in instalments accross the year. This may differ from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large common areas. In all likelihood there will be a rentcharge to be met annual, normally this is not a large figure, say approximately £25-£75 but you need to check it because on occasion it could be prohibitively expensive. Where a Dursley lease has less than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the value of the apartment. It is worth checking with your bank that they are willing to go ahead with the loan given the lease term. A short lease means that you will most likely have to extend the lease at some point and you need to have some idea of what this will be. Remember, in most cases you would be be obliged to have been the owner of the premises for 24 months in order to be entitled to exercise a lease extension.