My wife and I are buying a 3 bedroom flat in New Milton with a mortgage. We have a New Milton conveyancer, however the mortgage company advise she’s not on their "panel". We have to appoint one of the lender panel conveyancing practices or retain our New Milton lawyer and pay for one of their panel ones to act for them. We regard this is inequitable; are we not able to demand that the bank use our New Milton conveyancer ?
No, not really. Your mortgage offer is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the lender’s conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. A further alternative is for your New Milton conveyancing lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel.
Why do I have to pay up front for my conveyancing in New Milton?
If you are buying a property in New Milton your lawyer will ask you to provide them with monies to cover the search fees. Ordinarily this is requested to cover the fees of the Local Authority Search. If any deposit is as part of the purchase price then this will be required immediately in advance of contracts are exchanged. The final balance that is needed should be sent to your lawyer a few days prior to the day of completion.
I note that there are debates on Chancel Insurance on online forums. Am I compelled to take this when buying a property in New Milton? or Apparently there is historic law that could mean that homeowners living in a parish church boundary will be compelled to pay for repairs towards the chancel in proximity to the church. Is this applicable for conveyancing in New Milton?
Unless a previous purchase of the house took place post 12 October 2013 you may expect conveyancing practitioners handling conveyancing in New Milton to continue to propose a a chancel search and or chancel repair liability insurance.
Me and my brother have a semi-detached Georgian house in New Milton. Conveyancing solicitor acted for me and Santander. I did a free Land Registry search last week and there are a couple of entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold with the exact same property. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You need to read 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 owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in New Milton 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 mortgage companies. You can also check the position with the conveyancing solicitor who conducted the conveyancing.
I’m about to sell my garden flat in New Milton. Conveyancing is yet to be initiated, however I have just received a quarterly service charge demand – Do I pay up?
Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should pay the service charge as you normally would given that all rents and maintenance charges will be allotted on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the purchaser for the period running from after the completion date to the subsequent invoice date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.
I am the registered owner of a 2 bed flat in New Milton, conveyancing formalities finalised in 1998. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Corresponding properties in New Milton with a long lease are worth £227,000. The ground rent is £50 invoiced annually. The lease finishes on 21st October 2097
You have 71 years unexpired the likely cost is going to be between £9,500 and £11,000 plus legals.
The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more detailed investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional issues that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.
My wife and I have AIP from Barclays who indicated we could borrow up to £218k. At what point do I need to appoint a lawyer for conveyancing? New Milton is where we plan to move to.
It would be wise to appoint a conveyancing practitioner now so that the lawyer can open the ledger so they can commence their AML checks etc. If and when you wish them to commence work they will seek a payment on account usually about £225. That would generally be once you have the mortgage offer and valuation back, but should you want to speed matters you can start sooner albeit risking some expense.