My partner and I are hoping to purchase a house in Newbiggin By The Sea and are in fact using a Newbiggin By The Sea conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. TSB have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Newbiggin By The Sea solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent the mortgage company. 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 property lawyer 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 lawyers to represent them. 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 Newbiggin By The Sea lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
I am the registered owner of a freehold premises in Newbiggin By The Sea but nevertheless charged rent, why is this and what is this?
It’s unusual for properties in Newbiggin By The Sea and has limited impact for conveyancing in Newbiggin By The Sea but some freehold properties in England (particularly common in North West England) pay an annual sum known as a Chief Rent or a Rentcharge to a third party who has no other legal interest in the land.
Rentcharge payments are usually between £2.00 and £5.00 per year. Rentcharges have existed for hundreds of years, but the Rent Charge Act 1977 barred the creation of fresh rentcharges post 1977.
Previous rentcharges can now be redeemed by making a one off payment under the Act. Any rentcharges that are still in existence post 2037 will be extinguished.
I am in the process of remortgaging my flat in Newbiggin By The Sea, does my lawyer have to be on the Virgin Money Solicitor panel?
In theory, you could use a solicitor that is not on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel, but Virgin Money would require one of their panel solicitors to be instructed to act in their interests, and you'd have to pay for this - so most people instruct a panel solicitor. It's also easier, as otherwise you'd have to deal with two solicitors for the same conveyancing matter.
I'm purchasing a new build house in Newbiggin By The Sea with a mortgage from Barnsley Building Society. The sellers refused to reduce the amount so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of extras instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not inform my solicitor about the side-deal as it could put at risk my loan with the bank. Is this normal?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.
Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.
Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £305k and identified one close by in Newbiggin By The Sea I like with amenity areas and transport links in the vicinity, however it only has 61 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Newbiggin By The Sea for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?
If you require a home loan the shortness of the lease will likely be problematic. Reduce the price by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you could request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor regarding this matter.
I own a leasehold flat in Newbiggin By The Sea. Conveyancing was completed in 21012. I have been told that I mustn’t allow the lease length fall too low. What is the reasoning?
Newbiggin By The Sea residential long term leases are for a set period - normally 99 years when they commenced. However a significant flats in Newbiggin By The Sea were built or converted in the 60’s and so these leases now have less than eighty years left to run. That may seem like plenty of time but Banks, Building Societies and other mortgage institutions generally require leases to have a minimum of 75 years remaining to be mortgageable. This means that when you come to sell the property you will need to extend the term of your lease if you are getting close to eighty years. To increase the saleability of your property you should be thinking about whether or not to extend your lease long before you come to sell it. Furthermore significant benefits to taking action before the lease reaches even 80 years as when the lease is less than eighty years the premium you have to pay to extend starts to get a lot more expensive.