My partner and I are buying a brand new flat in Essex and my solicitor is telling me that she has to the lender to disclose incentives from the builder. The Estate Agents are hassling me to exchange contracts and I have no desire to delay the conveyancing. is my lawyer playing by the book?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your lawyer. A precondition to being on a lender panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook specifications. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
The Essex conveyancing firm that I appointed last week on my house acquisition in Essex have without warning closed. They were on acting for me because I had to have a lawyer on the Principality conveyancing panel and my previous Essex lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take £195 for searches. What should be my next steps?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Principality conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers may be able to help.
Me and my brother purchased a renovated Edwardian property in Essex. Conveyancing lawyer acted for me and Bank of Ireland. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and I saw two entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold with the matching property. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You need to read the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Essex and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with purchasers. You can also question the situation with your conveyancing lawyer who conducted the purchase.
I am buying my first flat in Essex with a mortgage from Skipton Building Society. The sellers would not budge the price so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The house builders rep advised me not to tell my lawyer about the extras as it could impact my mortgage with the lender. Should I keep quiet?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I put an offer in two weeks back in what was supposed to be a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. Essex is where the house is located. What do you suggest?
Flying freeholds in Essex are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Essex you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Essex may determine that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold property.
I have today had an offer accepted on an apartment in Essex and the estate agent that we are using recommended his conveyancing practitioner. He quoted a thousand pounds including VAT and disbursements. Does this sound reasonable?
Don't just go on a single quote. One should seek like-for-like quotes for your conveyancing in Essex. Then select one that you are comfortable with and crucially, is on the approved list of the mortgage company that you are sourcing your mortgage from.