It is a dozen years since I purchased my home in Kensington. Conveyancing lawyers have now been retained on the sale but I can't locate the title documents. Is this a major issue?
Don’t worry too much. First the deeds may be kept by your lender or they could be in the possession of the conveyancers who handled your purchase. Secondly the chances are that the land will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to prove you own the property by your conveyancing solicitors acquiring up to date copy of the land registers. Nearly all conveyancing in Kensington relates to registered property but in the unlikely event that your property is not registered it adds to the complexity but is resolvable.
We're in Kensington, First time buyers buying with a mortgage (lender is Skipton , and our lawyer is on the Skipton conveyancing panel). How long should the conveyancing process take?
The fact that your lawyer is on the Skipton conveyancing panel is a help. It would almost certainly delay matters if they were not. However, no solicitor should guarantee a timeframe for your conveyancing, due to third parties outside of your control such as delays caused by lenders,conveyancing search providers or by the other side’s solicitors. The time taken is often determined by the number of parties in a chain.
My wife and I purchased a renovated Georgian property in Kensington. Conveyancing solicitor acted for me and Halifax. I did a free Land Registry search last week and there are a couple of entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold under the matching property. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?
You need to assess 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 proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Kensington and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with lenders. You can also check the situation with the conveyancing solicitor who conducted the purchase.
I opted to have a survey carried out on a house in Kensington prior to retaining solicitors. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold overhang to the property. My surveyor advised that some lenders tend refuse to give a loan on this type of house.
It varies from the lender to lender. Lloyds has different requirements from Nationwide. Should you wish to telephone us we can check with the relevant bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Kensington. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in Kensington especially if they regularly deal with such properties in Kensington.
I am looking into buying my first house which is in Kensington and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Kensington. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Kensington area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?
Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Kensington. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found
Can you provide any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Kensington from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?
- Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Kensington can be reduced if you get in touch lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and ask them to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers’ solicitors. The majority of freeholders or Management Companies in Kensington levy fees for providing management packs for a leasehold premises. You or your lawyers should enquire as to the fee that they propose to charge. The management information sought on or before finding a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The average time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most common reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Kensington. A minority of Kensington leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the annual 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers. If you are supposed to have a share in the freehold, you should ensure that you have the original share document. Organising a re-issued share certificate can be a time consuming formality and frustrates many a Kensington home move. If a new share is needed, you should approach the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this sooner rather than later.
Having spent years of correspondence we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Kensington. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?
Where there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to decide the price payable.
An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Kensington premises is 93 Oakwood Court in June 2010. the LVT determined that the premium to be paid for the new lease was £492,083, This case affected 1 flat. The number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 37.79 years.