My wife and I are planning to acquire a house in Kingstanding and have instructed a Kingstanding conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Bank of Scotland have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Kingstanding lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
If you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. 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 Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer should contact your mortgage company 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Kingstanding solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
I am acquiring a house mortgage free in Kingstanding. I have lived for the last Seventeen years in Kingstanding. Conveyancing searches are exorbitant. Given that I have knowledge of the area and road very well should I not bother getting the solicitor to do all the conveyancing searches?
If you not getting a mortgage, then the vast majority of the Kingstanding conveyancing searches are at your discretion. Your conveyancer will 'advise', perhaps strongly, that you should have searches completed, but she is duty bound to do this. Do bear in mind; if you are likely to dispose of the house at a future date, it may be of relevance to your future purchaser what the searches contain. There are plenty of instances where houses with day to day issues can still show up unexpected search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in Kingstanding should provide you some helpful guidance in this regard.
Do commercial conveyancing searches reveal proposed roadworks that may impact a commercial site in Kingstanding?
Many commercial conveyancing solicitors in Kingstanding will carry out a SiteSolutions Highways report as it reduces the time that conveyancers expend in investigating accurate data on highways that impact buildings and development assets in Kingstanding. The report sets out definitive data on the adoption status of roads, footpaths and verges, as well as the implication of traffic schemes and the rights of way surrounding a commercial development sites in Kingstanding.
For each commercial conveyancing transaction in Kingstanding it is critical to investigate the adoption status of roads surrounding a site. Failure to identify developments where adoption procedures have not been dealt with adequately could result in delays to Kingstanding commercial conveyancing transactions as well as pose a risk to future intentions for the site. These searches are not carried out for residential conveyancing in Kingstanding.
Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my house can not be found. The solicitors who dealt with the conveyancing in Kingstanding 4 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 own the land or premises, as the Land Registry have everything they need in a digital format.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £245,000 and found one close by in Kingstanding I like with amenity areas and station nearby, however it's only got 51 years unexpired on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Kingstanding for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake buying a short lease?
If you need a mortgage the shortness of the lease will likely be problematic. Discount the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current owner has owned the property for a minimum of 2 years you can request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer concerning this.
I today plan to offer on a house that appears to tick a lot of boxes, at a great price which is making it more attractive. I have subsequently been informed that the title is leasehold as opposed to freehold. I am assuming that there are particular concerns buying a leasehold house in Kingstanding. Conveyancing advisers have not yet been appointed. Will they explain the issues?
Most houses in Kingstanding are freehold rather than leasehold. This is one of the situations where having a local conveyancer who is familiar with the area can assist with the conveyancing process. It is clear that you are purchasing in Kingstanding so you should seriously consider looking for a Kingstanding conveyancing practitioner and check that they have experience in transacting on leasehold houses. First you will need to check the number of years remaining. Being a lessee you will not be entirely free to do whatever you want with the house. The lease will likely included provisions for example requiring the freeholder’spermission to carry out changes to the property. It may be necessary to pay a maintenance charge towards the upkeep of the communal areas where the house is located on an estate. Your conveyancer should report to you on the legal implications.