My partner and I are planning to buy a house in Hope and are in fact using a Hope conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. TSB have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Hope lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the purchaser's lender. 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your bank and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Hope solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
My partner and I have lately purchased a house in Hope. We have since encountered a number of problems with the house which we believe were omitted in the conveyancing searches. Do we have any recourse? Can you clarify the nature of searches that needed to have been conducted for conveyancing in Hope?
The question is vague as what problems have arisen and if they are relate to conveyancing in Hope. Conveyancing searches and due diligence initiated as part of the buying process are designed to help avoid problems. As part of the process, a seller answers a document called a Seller’s Property Information Form. If the information is misleading, then you may have a claim against the vendor for any losses that you have suffered. The survey should have identified any problems with the structure of the property. Assuming a detailed survey was carried out and the issues were not identified, you may have a claim against the surveyor. However, if you did not have a full survey, you may be responsible for fixing any defects that have now been noted. We would always encourage buyers to take every possible step to ensure they are completely aware of the condition of a property before purchase regardless of whether they are buying in Hope.
My colleague advised me that where I am buying in Hope I should ask my conveyancer to 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 sometimes included in the estimate for your Hope conveyancing searches. It is a large document of about 40 pages, listing and detailing important information about Hope around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Hope Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Hope Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information regarding Hope.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a ground for flat up to £245,000 and found one round the corner in Hope I like with amenity areas and station nearby, the downside is that it's only got 52 years unexpired on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Hope suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?
If you need a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will be an issue. Discount the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the property for at least twenty four months you can request that they start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer regarding this matter.
I am looking into buying my first house which is in Hope and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Hope. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Hope area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?
Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Hope. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found
My wife and I may need to sub-let our Hope basement flat temporarily due to taking a sabbatical. We instructed a Hope conveyancing firm in 2003 but they have since shut and we did not have the foresight to get any guidance as to whether the lease prohibits the subletting of the flat. How do we find out?
Even though your previous Hope conveyancing lawyer is no longer available you can check your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the premises. The accepted inference is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is permitted. Quite often there is a prerequisite that you are obliged to obtain permission via your landlord or other appropriate person in advance of subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without prior permission. Such consent is not allowed to be unreasonably withheld. If your lease does not allow you to sublet you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.
I invested in buying a 1st floor flat in Hope, conveyancing formalities finalised October 1997. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Corresponding flats in Hope with an extended lease are worth £185,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 yearly. The lease expires on 21st October 2085
With 60 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to range between £20,000 and £23,000 plus costs.
The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure without more comprehensive investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information without first getting professional advice.