My partner and I are planning to acquire a house in Soho and are in fact using a Soho conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Nottingham Building Society have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Soho solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is normal for the purchasers' solicitors 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 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 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 Soho solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
Is there a search tool that I can use to discover of the solicitor handling my conveyancing in Soho is on the bank’sapproved panel? I am looking to avoid the situation of having one lawyer for me and one for Norwich and Peterborough Building Society thus paying £187.00 plus VAT in supplemental legal invoice.
Please do make the most of the find a conveyancing panel solicitor tool on this web page. Please choose the lender and type ‘Soho’ or your preferred area and you will be presented with a number of lawyer based in Soho or nearest you.
Should our lawyer be raising questions concerning flooding as part of the conveyancing in Soho.
The risk of flooding is if increasing concern for conveyancers carrying out conveyancing in Soho. There are those who acquire a property in Soho, completely expectant that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, aside from the physical destruction, if a property is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, satisfactory building insurance, or sell the premises. There are steps that can be taken during the course of a house purchase to forewarn the purchaser.
Lawyers are not best placed to give advice on flood risk, but there are a various searches that can be initiated by the purchaser or by their conveyancers which will figure out the risks in Soho. The conventional set of property information forms supplied to a buyer’s lawyer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) contains a standard question of the seller to discover whether the property has suffered from flooding. In the event that flooding has previously occurred which is not revealed by the owner, then a purchaser could commence a claim for damages as a result of such an incorrect reply. A purchaser’s lawyers should also conduct an enviro search. This will higlight whether there is a recorded flood risk. If so, further inquiries will need to be conducted.
five months have elapsed following my purchase conveyancing in Soho concluded. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £150,000 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 property 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.
In what way can the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 affect my business offices in Soho and how can you help?
The particular law that you refer to gives a safeguard to commercial leaseholders, giving them the right to make a request to court for a continuation of occupancy when the lease comes to an end. There are certain specified grounds where a landlord can refuse a lease renewal and the rules are complex. Fees are different for commercial conveyancing. Soho is one of our hundreds of locations in which our lawyers have offices
I am employed by a busy estate agency in Soho where we have experienced a few flat sales put at risk due to short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Soho conveyancing firms. Can you clarify whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the buyer?
As long as the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.
Alternatively, it may be possible to agree the lease extension with the freeholder either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the purchaser.
After years of correspondence we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Soho. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?
Where there is a missing landlord or if there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to assess the price.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Soho residence is 20 Avonwick Road in July 2013. The Tribunal was dealing with an application under Section 26 of the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 for a determination of the freehold value of the property. It was concluded that the price to be paid was Fifteen Thousand Nine Hundred and Seventy (£15,970) divided as to £8,200 for Flat 20 and £7,770 for Flat 20A This case related to 1 flat. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 73.26 years.