My fiance and I are hoping to acquire a home in Reigate and have appointed a Reigate conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Alliance & Leicester have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Reigate solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
If you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 bank 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Reigate solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
My relative recommended that where I am buying in Reigate I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is usually included in the estimate for your Reigate conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of about 40 pages, listing and detailing significant information about Reigate around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Reigate Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about Reigate.
I used Action Conveyancing a few years ago for my conveyancing in Reigate. I now require my file but cannot find the solicitor. What do I do?
You should call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracing your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Reigate of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously instructed, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
About to purchase a new build flat in Reigate. Conveyancing is necessary evil at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. Can you give me some examples of some of the questions asked in new build conveyancing.
Set out below are examples of a selection of leasehold new build enquiries that you should expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Reigate
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There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. Has the Lease plan been approved by the Land Registry and if not when will they be lodged for this purpose? Investor purchasers must be able to freely grant unsecured tenancies at market rents without requiring any consents. If there are lifts in the building, please confirm that the owners of flats on the ground and basement floors will not be required to contribute towards the cost of maintenance and renewal. Will control of the Management Company (if any) be handed over to purchasers on completion of the last sale or earlier?
Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £195,000 and identified one round the corner in Reigate I like with open areas and railway links in the vicinity, however it only has 52 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Reigate for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a short lease?
Should you require a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be an issue. Discount the price by the anticipated 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 can ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer regarding this matter.
Is there a difference between surveying and conveyancing in Reigate?
Conveyancing - in Reigate or elsewhere - is the legal term given to transferring legal title of property from one person to another. It therefore includes the investigation of the title. Whether buying or selling, you should be aware of anything affecting the property such as proposals by government departments, illegal buildings, or outstanding rates. The conveyancer should conduct the appropriate searches and inquiries on the property. Surveying relates to the structure of a property itself. A surveyor will look at a house, flat and any outbuildings you are intending to buy and will help you find out about the condition of the building and, if there are problems, give you leverage for negotiating the purchase price down or asking the vendor to remedy the problems prior to you complete your move.