My wife and I are looking to acquire a property in New Romney and have instructed a New Romney conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Coventry Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our New Romney solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is conventional 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your lender 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred New Romney lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
A colleague suggested that if I am purchasing in New Romney I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is usually quoted for as part of the standard New Romney conveyancing searches. It is a large document of about 40 pages, listing and detailing significant information about New Romney around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information regarding New Romney.
Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my home can not be found. The solicitors who conducted the conveyancing in New Romney 4 years ago have long since closed. Will I be able to sell the house?
As long as the title is registered the information relating to your proprietorship will be recorded by the Land Registry with a Title Number. It is easy to execute a search at the Land Registry, find your property and get current copies of the Registered Entries for less than a fiver. If the property is Leasehold then the Land Registry will in most cases retain a certified duplicate of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be retrieved for twenty pounds.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a flat up to £305k and identified one round the corner in New Romney I like with amenity areas and transport links nearby, the downside is that it only has 61 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in New Romney suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a lease with such few years left?
Should you need a mortgage the shortness of the lease may be a potential deal breaker. Discount the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor concerning this.
Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only 62 years unexpired on my lease in New Romney. I am keen to get lease extension but my freeholder is absent. What options are available to me?
On the basis that you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be lengthened by the magistrate. You will be obliged to demonstrate that you have done all that could be expected to locate the freeholder. In some cases an enquiry agent should be useful to carry out a search and to produce a report to be used as proof that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing New Romney.
New Romney Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing
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The answer will be important as a) areas can cause problems for the building as the communal areas may start to deteriorate where repairs are not paid for b) if the leasehold owners have an issue with the running of the building you will want to know about it How is the lease structured? What is the annual service fee and ground rent?
What is the reason for new build conveyancing in New Romney being more expensive?
Conveyancing in New Romney for recently converted or new build premises can sometimes involve adoption of highways & drains, building regulations approval, planning permission, new build warranties such NHBC as well as supplemental investigations and contractual concerns.