My wife and I are acquiring a brand new flat in Sidcup and my solicitor is telling me that she is duty bound to the bank to disclose incentives from the seller. The Estate Agents are hassling me to sign contracts and I would rather not prolong matters. is my lawyer playing by the book?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancer. A precondition to being on a lender panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook provisions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
We are purchasing a property in Sidcup. I might seem paranoid but how we can trust a conveyancer? At some point we have to send funds into their account. What protection do we have from them run away with our money?
Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.
When it comes to lenders such as Nottingham, do Sidcup conveyancing practitioners face a fee to be on the list of approved solicitors?
We are not aware of any bank fees to be on their list of approved firms, although some do charge an administration charge to deal with the processing of the conveyancing panel submission.
I am due to exchange contracts on my apartment. I had a double glazing fitted in July 2008, but did not receive a FENSA certificate or Building Regulation Certificate. My buyer's lender, Leeds Building Society are being problematic. The Sidcup solicitor who is on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel is saying indemnity insurance will be fine but Leeds Building Society are requiring a building regulation certificate. Why do Leeds Building Society have a conveyancing panel if they don't accept advice from them?
It is probably the case that Leeds Building Society have referred the matter to their valuer. The reason why Leeds Building Society may not want to accept indemnity insurance is because it does not give them any reassurance that the double glazing was correctly and safely installed. The indemnity insurance merely protects against enforcement action which is very unlikely anyway.
A colleague recommended that where I am buying in Sidcup 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 quoted for as part of the standard Sidcup conveyancing searches. It is a large document of about 40 pages, listing and setting out important information about Sidcup around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Sidcup Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Local Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data concerning Sidcup.
It has been 4 months following my purchase conveyancing in Sidcup concluded. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £175,000 when infact I paid £160,000. Why the discrepancy?
The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the asset from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.
I decided to have a survey carried out on a property in Sidcup in advance of appointing solicitors. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. Our surveyor has said that some mortgage companies may refuse to give a mortgage on this type of premises.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Santander has different requirements for example to Nationwide. Should you wish to call us we can look into this further via the appropriate lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Sidcup. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Sidcup to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.
Am I better off to use a Sidcup conveyancing practitioner who is local to the property I am purchasing? An old friend can deal with the legal work however her office is 400miles drive away.
The primary upside of using a local Sidcup conveyancing firm is that you can attend the office to sign documents, deliver your ID and apply pressure on them if necessary. Having local Sidcup know how is a plus. However it's more important to get someone that will do a good and efficient job. If other friends have instructed your friend and the majority were happy that must surpass using an unfamiliar Sidcup conveyancing solicitor solely due to them being local.