My wife and I are hoping to acquire a house in Knutsford and are in fact using a Knutsford conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. TSB have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Knutsford lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 Quality 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Knutsford solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
My wife and I are purchasing a house in Knutsford. I might seem paranoid but how we can trust a solicitor? On completion day we have to deposit our life savings into their account. What is the protection we have from them run away with our monies?
Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.
I'm the single recipient of my late father’s estate and I have everything in my name now, including the house in Knutsford. Conveyancing formalities meant that the Land Registry date was in October. I plan to dispose of the house. I understand that there is a CML 6 month 'rule', meaning my proprietorship could be regarded the same way as if I'd bought the house in October. Will no one buy the property for half a year?
The CML handbook requires 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 may be caught by that. How practical a view mortgage companies take of it, depend on the lender as this requirement is chiefly there to pick up on subsales or the flipping of property.
After months of negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Knutsford. My financial adviser suggested a conveyancer. I paid an on account payment of £225. Not long after, the solicitor called me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Barclays conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Barclays panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
Will our conveyancer be raising questions about flooding as part of the conveyancing in Knutsford.
Flooding is a growing risk for lawyers dealing with homes in Knutsford. There are those who acquire a property in Knutsford, completely aware that at some time, it may be flooded. However, leaving to one side the physical damage, if a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, adequate building insurance, or dispose of the premises. Steps can be carried out during the course of a property purchase to forewarn the purchaser.
Solicitors are not best placed to give advice on flood risk, however there are a various checks that may be initiated by the buyer or by their lawyers which should give them a better understanding of the risks in Knutsford. The standard completed inquiry forms supplied to a purchaser’s solicitor (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) incorporates a usual question of the seller to find out whether the property has ever been flooded. If the premises has been flooded in past and is not notified by the vendor, then a purchaser may issue a compensation claim as a result of such an misleading reply. The buyer’s conveyancers will also commission an enviro report. This will indicate if there is a recorded flood risk. If so, additional investigations will need to be carried out.
I am looking for a flat up to £245,000 and found one round the corner in Knutsford I like with open areas and railway links nearby, however it only has 52 years unexpired on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Knutsford for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a lease with such few years left?
If you need a mortgage that many years will likely be a potential deal breaker. Reduce the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you may request that they commence the lease extension formalities and then assign 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 solicitor regarding this.
I'm refinancing my existing property to a buy to let mortgage with Clydesdale and I will use the rest of the raised equity as a deposit on further property. The location we are interested in is Knutsford. Will your lawyers be able to act for both sets of lenders and tie in the transactions?
Do use our search tool on this site to ensure that the conveyancers are approved by both lenders. Assuming that they are your conveyancer should be able to connect the two conveyancing matters but you should talk with you lawyer and communicate your expectations and needs.
Last July I purchased a leasehold house in Knutsford. Am I liable to pay service charges relating to a period prior to my ownership?
Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.
If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).
Knutsford Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries before buying
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In the main the cost for major works tend not to be incorporated into the service charges, albeit that a few managing agents in Knutsford ask leasehold owners to contribute towards a reserve fund created for the specific intention of building a fund for larger repairs or maintenance. You should be aware that where the lease has fewer than eighty years it will impact the marketability of the property. Check with your mortgage company that they are content with remaining years on the lease. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will almost definitely need a lease extension sooner rather than later and it is worth discovering how much this will be. For most Knutsfordlease extensions you will need to own the residence for 24 months in order to be eligible to extend the lease. How many years remain on the lease?