I currently have a mortgage with Clydesdale for my property in Mortimer. Conveyancing was finalised 12 months ago. Should I wish to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Clydesdale?
Clydesdale must be informed of your intention prior to renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Clydesdale’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will allow you to rent out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Clydesdale directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Clydesdale conveyancing panel lawyer.
After much negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Mortimer. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their solicitor. I paid an upfront payment of £225. A few days later, the conveyancer called me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Principality 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 Principality 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.
Having read lots of mortgage guides, I note that they all recommend that you should get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local Mortimer solicitor - who is on the Co-operative conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. Is that normal?
Co-operative will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Co-operative will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your property lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Mortimer postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Co-operative, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Mortimer.
I have been told that property searches are a common cause of delay in Mortimer conveyancing transactions. Is there any truth in this?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) released conclusions of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not figure amongst the common causes of delays in the conveyancing process. Local searches are unlikely to be the root cause of slowing down conveyancing in Mortimer.
three months have gone by following my purchase conveyancing in Mortimer took place. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £200,000 when infact I paid £180,000. Why the discrepancy?
The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the asset from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.
The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build apartment in Mortimer. Conveyancing is daunting at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. Can you give me some examples of some of the questions asked in new build legal work.
Here is a sample of a few leasehold new build enquiries that you should expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Mortimer
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The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme. The Lease must contain a provision on behalf of the Vendor to pay the service charges in respect of unoccupied units in order to ensure that all services can be provided. Where there is an Undertaking being granted there is the risk of forfeiture of the Headlease subject to relief if one or more of the Underlessees are willing to accept the original Head Lessee’s obligations as otherwise relief will be denied to the Underlessees. The only alternatives are the Head Lessor agreeing not to forfeit the Headlease or the Head Lessee guaranteeing to the Underlessees that it will not be in breach of the Headlease. Investor purchasers must be able to freely grant unsecured tenancies at market rents without requiring any consents.
Due to the input of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a house in Mortimer in advance of instructing conveyancers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold overhang to the house. The surveyor has said that some mortgage companies will refuse to issue a loan on such a premises.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Bank of Scotland has different requirements for example to Birmingham Midshires. If you call us we can check via the relevant mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Mortimer. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Mortimer to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.
Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Mortimer from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?
- A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Mortimer can be reduced if you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to collate the leasehold information needed by the buyers’ conveyancers. You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be advisable verify this by asking your lawyers. A buyer’s lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the lease term is under 80 years. In the circumstances it is important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale. If you have had conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are settled prior to the flat being put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as over rather than unsettled. Some Mortimer leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the yearly 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 solicitors.
Mortimer Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries Prior to Purchasing
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How much is the annual maintenance fee and ground rent? It would be sensible to find out as much as possible regarding the managing agents as they can either make your living at the property much simpler or a lot more difficult. As the proprietor of a leasehold property you are often at the mercy of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to daily issues like the cleanliness of the common parts. Enquire of prospective neighbours whether they are happy with their management. On a final note, investigate as to the dates that the service fees are due to the managing agents and precisely how they are spending the funds. It is important to be aware whether redecorating or some other significant cost is coming up that will be shared between the tenants and will materially increase the the maintenance costs or necessitate a one time invoice.