I am obtaining a mortgage with Santander. My intention is to retain the legal services of a Licensed Conveyancer in New Addington. Does the Santander Solicitor panel allow for Licensed Conveyancers?
The Santander conveyancing panel is, like many other lenders, represented by the Council or Mortgage Lenders or Building Society Association, open to Licensed Conveyancers regulated by the CLC.
I own a renovated Georgian property in New Addington. Conveyancing practitioner represented me and Skipton Building Society. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw two entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold with the exact same property. Is it worth asking Skipton Building Society to clarify?
You should 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 New Addington and other locations in 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 mortgage companies. You can also check the position with your conveyancing solicitor who carried out the work.
I decided to have a survey completed on a property in New Addington before appointing lawyers. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. The surveyor advised that some mortgage companies tend not give a loan on such a home.
It varies from the lender to lender. Santander has different instructions from Nationwide. If you contact us we can check via the appropriate lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in New Addington. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in New Addington especially if they are acquainted with such properties in New Addington.
My company is looking to lease a unit on the high street. Can you recommend lawyers offering no-sale-no fees for commercial conveyancing in New Addington for under 2k?
We are happy to recommend firms who host a wealth of experience of commercial conveyancing in New Addington, including the sale and acquisition of businesses as well as simply premises. If you are looking to purchase or sell a shop, pub, restaurant, office, retail unit or a whole business we can put you in touch with the right solicitor. As for the costs this will depend on the structure and complexity of the deal. Please provide us with your details or phone us so that we can supply you with a detailed commercial conveyancing calculation.
Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in New Addington with the intention of saving time on the sale process?
- A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in New Addington can be reduced if you appoint lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and ask them to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the buyers’ solicitors. You may think that you are aware of the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to double-check via your solicitors. A purchaser's lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is less than 80 years. It is therefore important at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale. If there is a history of conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to present the dispute as historic as opposed to ongoing. Some New Addington leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is 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. If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should make sure that you hold the original share document. Arranging a re-issued share certificate can be a lengthy process and frustrates many a New Addington conveyancing transaction. If a duplicate share certificate is necessary, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this at the earliest opportunity.
Having spent years of correspondence we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in New Addington. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?
if there is a missing freeholder or where there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to judgment on the amount due.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement matter before the tribunal for a New Addington flat is The Woodlands 95 Purley Park Road in April 2009. The Tribunals own valuation produced the figure of £37,912. This case was in relation to 6 flats. The remaining number of years on the lease was 78.32 years.
My nephew is embarking on her first house purchase, the home loan was agreed last week in principle. When the offer was accepted on flat we contacted the mortgage institution to go forward with his. We were disappointed to hear that mortgage companies do not accept all conveyancing practitioner, they must be on their panel, is this correct?
Banks tend to imposes restrictions either the type or the number of conveyancing solicitors on their approved list of lawyers. Typical examples of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that lenders have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any New Addington lawyer on their panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, conveyancing is not their speciality. To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime? Presumably not.