What does my ID and proof of funds have anything to do with my conveyancing in Strawberry Hill? Why is this being asked of me?
Anti-terror and anti-money-laundering rules require solicitors and licensed conveyancers to check the ID of the person or body they are dealing with before they can accept their conveyancing retainer. The Client Care letter that you are required to sign will no doubt stipulate this. Your lender will also require certain documents to be viewed. If you refuse to supply ID verification documents, your lawyer would not be able to accept instructions from you.
The Strawberry Hill conveyancing solicitors that I recently instructed on my purchase in Strawberry Hill have without warning shut down. I chose them because I needed a lawyer on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel and my preferred Strawberry Hill lawyer was not. I paid them £170 in advance. What do I do now?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers should be in a position to help.
Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my home are lost. The solicitors who conducted the conveyancing in Strawberry Hill 4 years ago are no longer around. What do I do?
Gone are the days when you need to have the physical official documentation to prove you own the land or property, given that the Land Registry hold details of all registered land or property electronically.
I am purchasing a new build house in Strawberry Hill with the aid of help to buy. The sellers refused to budge the price so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The estate agent told me not inform my solicitor about this deal as it may impact my loan with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.
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 am looking at a couple of apartments in Strawberry Hill both have in the region of 50 years remaining on the lease term. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?
There are no two ways about it. A leasehold flat in Strawberry Hill is a deteriorating asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the salability of the premises. The majority of buyers and mortgage companies, leases with less than eighty years become less and less attractive. On a more positive note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a residence with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Strawberry Hill conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease. They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.
I am the proprietor of a basement flat in Strawberry Hill. Given that I can not reach agreement with the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the amount payable for the purchase of the freehold?
Where there is a missing landlord or if there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the LVT to assess the premium.
An example of a Lease Extension case for a Strawberry Hill flat is Ground Floor Flat 91 Bath Road in May 2009. in a case where the freeholder could not be traced, the Brentford County Court ordered that the Lease be surrendered in return for the grant of a new lease of the Premises at a premium determined by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. The tribunal concluded that the price payable by the Applicant for the new lease of the premises be £15,900 This case affected 1 flat. The number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 60.45 years.
My brother mentioned that when choosing a conveyancing solicitors they must be approved by your lender. This is my first house move but I have an AIP via HSBC and I already have a bricks and morter conveyancing lawyer in Strawberry Hill at the ready. Does Birmingham Midhshires insist on an approved lawyer to be used? If so, where do I find that list for my conveyancing in Strawberry Hill?
You need to instruct a solicitor that is on the Birmingham Midhshires panel. Just ring your preferred Strawberry Hill conveyancing solicitor to check if they are on the Birmingham Midhshires panel. If they are not approved you have a number of alternatives open to you here:
- Proceed with your existing Strawberry Hill solicitor but Birmingham Midhshires will no doubt appoint a conveyancing practitioner from their approved panel. The net impact is additional fees and likely frustration.
- Get a fresh conveyancer to act in the purchase, obviously checking they are on the Birmingham Midhshires conveyancing panel.
- Appeal to your property lawyer to apply to join the lender panel.