I plan on purchasing a flat in St Mary Cray. My Conveyancer has never been on on the lender solicitor panel. Can I still appoint my St Mary Cray conveyancing solicitor notwithstanding that they are excluded from the lender list of approved lawyers?
You will need to have a lawyer to complete the formalities if you need a mortgage to purchase your property. The property lawyer will conduct all the necessary investigations on the property, make sure that you will be registered as proprietor and ensure that all the required mortgage documentation is dealt with. One could instruct a St Mary Cray conveyancer of your choice. However, if the lawyer appointed is not on the mortgage company solicitor panel further fees will be levied as separate legal representation will be required by them. Lender panel applications can be submitted, so provided your lawyer has not in the past applied for membership they should take the opportunity to apply.
I am helping my aunt sell her house in St Mary Cray. Does the conveyancing solicitor commission an energy assessment or should I organise this?
After the demise of Home Packs, energy assessments was retained a required element of moving property. An EPC needs to be commissioned prior to the property being marketed. This is not something that solicitors normally organise. Where you are instructing a St Mary Cray conveyancing lawyer they might be willing to arrange EPC’s due to their contacts with long established St Mary Cray providers
I have a mortgage with RBS for my property in St Mary Cray. Conveyancing has been completed 12 months ago. If I am intending to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform RBS?
Your original mortgage agreement with RBS will provide that you need their approval before renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of RBS’s mortgage conditions. It may be that RBS will allow you to rent out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact RBS directly. You need not do this via a RBS conveyancing panel solicitor.
I am due to exchange contracts on my apartment. I had a double glazing fitted in January 2008, but did not receive a FENSA certificate or Building Regulation Certificate. My buyer's mortgage company, Virgin Money are being difficult. The St Mary Cray solicitor who is on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel is recommending indemnity insurance as a solution but Virgin Money are insisting on a building regulation certificate. Why do Virgin Money have a conveyancing panel if they don't accept advice from them?
It is probably the case that Virgin Money have referred the matter to their valuer. The reason why Virgin Money 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.
I am purchasing my first flat in St Mary Cray benefiting from help to buy. The builders would not budge the price so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The estate agent advised me not reveal to my solicitor about the side-deal as it could jeopardize 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.
I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold element on a property I put an offer in a fortnight ago in what was supposed to be a simple, no chain conveyancing. St Mary Cray is the location of the property. Is there any guidance you can give?
Flying freeholds in St Mary Cray are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in St Mary Cray you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds thoroughly. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in St Mary Cray may decide 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 premises.
I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in St Mary Cray. Before I get started I require certainty as to the number of years remaining on the lease.
Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and almost all are in St Mary Cray - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title. For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.
Having spent months of correspondence we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in St Mary Cray. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?
if there is a absentee freeholder or where there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes it is possible to make an application to the LVT to calculate the sum to be paid.
An example of a Lease Extension decision for a St Mary Cray residence is 1 Southlands Court Southlands Road in September 2013. The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal determined that the premium to be paid by the tenant on the grant of a new lease, in accordance with section 56 and Schedule 13 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 was £30,541 This case was in relation to 1 flat. The unexpired lease term was 50.57 years.
Myself and my wife have just had an offer accepted on a flat and had an appointment on Wednesday with Nationwide for the mortgage. They advised us that when it comes to choosing a solicitor that if they are not on their approved list of property lawyers then we will have to pay out an extra charge of £200. This is because they would then have to select a conveyancer to act for them in addition to the one we select for ourselves and we will be on the hook for their costs. I have requested Nationwide to provide me with a list so I can obtain quotes only from their approved conveyancers but was told that I need to check with each individual conveyancer to see if they are on the panel. Is their an easier way of going about this?
You can enquire of Nationwide what their panel criteria is for a conveyancer.Then ask the conveyancing practitioner of your choice whether they meet the criteria and have they acted on mortgages for Nationwide before. Where the answer to those is yes, then just clarify this with Nationwide. Alternatively please utilise our search tool and we may be able to find you a conveyancer in St Mary Cray on the approved list for Nationwide.