Have just purchased a repossessed house at auction in St Neots. Conveyancing is necessary. What happens now?
Now that you are for in every practical sense signed on the dotted line you must hire the services of a conveyancing solicitor quickly as you are faced with a pending a drop dead date to complete the transaction. All auction property should have an associated legal pack. This should include the copy title deeds, local authority and drainage searches. Where you are dealing with leasehold premises the conveyancing pack should contain a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and associated conveyancing paperwork specific to a leasehold property. You should pass this on to your appointed conveyancing solicitor as soon as possible. Do make sure that your finances are organised to complete the transaction on the set completion date.
Last month we had a mortgage agreed in principle with Nationwide. St Neots conveyancing practitioners have been appointed. What is the average time that one could expect to receive a mortgage offer from Nationwide?
Some lenders take longer than others. Have Nationwide done the survey? Have you advised Nationwide as to your lawyers' details and checked that your lawyers are on the Nationwide conveyancing panel? Sometimes it can take as long as six weeks for a mortgage offer to be issued.
After much negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in St Neots. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an upfront payment of £175. A couple of days later, the conveyancer called me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Leeds Building Society panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
I require fast conveyancing in St Neots as I have pressure to complete inside 4 weeks. A home loan is not required. Is it possible to escape the need for conveyancing searches to save fees and time?
As you are are a mortgage free purchaser you have the choice not to have searches carried out although no conveyancer would suggest that you don't. Drawing on years of experience of conveyancing in St Neots the following are instances of what can appear and therefore impact future saleability: Refused Planning Applications, Overdue Fees, Outstanding Grants, Road Schemes,...
I used Wolstenholmes a few years ago for my conveyancing in St Neots. Now, I need the files however the law firm has closed. What do I do?
You should contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate 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 St Neots 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.
Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a property I put an offer in last month in what was supposed to be a simple, chain free conveyancing. St Neots is the location of the property. Is there any guidance you can give?
Flying freeholds in St Neots are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in St Neots you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds diligently. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in St Neots 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 premises.
I was recommended by two or three local estate agents in St Neots to locate a property lawyer using your seach tool. What’s the financial inducement for Estate Agents to promote your site over and above another?
We don’t offer any financial incentive for pointing buyers and sellers to this site. We thought it would be too underhand a fee because home movers will think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not receiving any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.
Last June I purchased a leasehold flat in St Neots. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?
In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.
If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).
Leasehold Conveyancing in St Neots - A selection of Questions you should consider Prior to Purchasing
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Be sure to find out if the the lease includes any onerous restrictions in the lease. By way of example it is reasonably common in St Neots leases that pets are not permitted in certain buildings in St Neots. If you like the flatin St Neots however your dog is not allowed to live with you then you will be faced difficult decision. This question is useful as a) areas can result in problems in the block as the common areas may begin to deteriorate where maintenance are not paid for b) if the leasehold owners have a dispute with the managing agents you will need to have all the details Most St Neots leasehold apartments will have a service bill for the upkeep of the block set by the management company. Where you buy the apartment you will have to meet this liability, usually quarterly throughout the year. This may differ from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built buildings. In all likelihood there will be a ground rent to be met yearly, ordinarily this is not a large sum, say around £25-£75 but you should to enquire it because on occasion it can be surprisingly expensive.