My wife and I are hoping to buy a home in Rainham and have appointed a Rainham conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Bank of Scotland have this morning contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Rainham lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 Quality 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 and you may continue to use your own Rainham solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
It is a dozen years since I bought my house in Rainham. Conveyancing lawyers have just been retained on the sale but I can't find my title documents. Is this a major issue?
You need not be too concerned. Firstly there is a chance that the deeds will be with your lender or they may be in the possession of the solicitor who handled the purchase. Secondly in all probability the property will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to prove you are the registered owner by your conveyancing solicitors obtaining current official copies of the land registers. Most conveyancing in Rainham involves registered property but in the rare situation where your home is unregistered it is more problematic but is not insurmountable.
How does conveyancing in Rainham differ for newly converted properties?
Most buyers of new build property in Rainham approach us having been asked by the seller to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the house is finished. This is because developers in Rainham tend to acquire the site, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct property lawyers as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are used to new build conveyancing in Rainham or who has acted in the same development.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold element on a property I put an offer in last month in what should have been a simple, chain free conveyancing. Rainham is the location of the property. What do you suggest?
Flying freeholds in Rainham are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Rainham you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds diligently. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Rainham may ascertain that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold property.
My husband and I are novice buyers - had an offer accepted, yet the estate agent has warned us that the owners will only move forward if we instruct their recommended lawyers as they want a ‘quick sale’. My instinct tells me that we should use a local conveyancer accustomed to conveyancing in Rainham
We suspect that the seller is unaware of this ultimatum. If they desire ‘a quick sale', alienating a serious purchaser is counter productive. Speak to the vendors direct and make sure they understand (a)you are keen to buy (b)you are ready to go, with finances in place © you do not need to sell (d) you intend to proceed fast (e)but you are going to instruct your preferred Rainham conveyancing solicitors - not the ones that will give the negotiator at the agency a introducer fee or hit his conveyancing thresholds set by senior management.
We own a leasehold flat in Rainham. Conveyancing was completed in last year. I have read on a number of advice forums that I mustn’t let the the remaining lease term to fall too short. Why is that a problem?
Rainham residential long term leases are for a prescribed period - usually ninety nine years when they commenced. However many appartments in Rainham were built or converted 30 or more years ago and so these leases now have fewer than eighty years left to run. That may sound like a long time but Banks, Building Societies and other mortgage lenders tend to require leases to have at least seventy five 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 nearing seventy five years. To increase the marketability of your property you should be thinking about whether to extend your lease well in advance of selling the property. You should note that there are advantages to taking action before the lease hits eighty years as when the lease is below 80 years the amount to be paid to extend starts to escalate.