I am buying a newly constructed duplex in Sydenham and my conveyancer is advising me that she is duty bound to the bank to reveal incentives from the seller. I am on a tight deadline to exchange and my preference is not to delay matters. Is my lawyer right?
You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your property lawyer. A precondition to being on a bank 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.
As a first time buyer what is the most important piece of guidance you can give me concerning purchase conveyancing in Sydenham?
Not many law firms shout this from the rooftops but conveyancing in Sydenham and elsewhere in South East London is an adversarial experience. In other words, when it comes to conveyancing there exists lots of room for friction between you and others involved in the ownership transfer. For example, the seller, estate agent and on occasion the bank. Choosing a lawyer for your conveyancing in Sydenham is a critical decision as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONLY person in the transaction whose responsibility is to protect your legal interests and to protect you.
We are witnessing a distinct creep of a "blame" culture- someone has to be blamed for the process being so protracted. We recommend that you your first instinct should be to trust your solicitor ahead of all other parties in the conveyancing process.
I am selling my home in Sydenham. Does the property lawyer need to be on the Co-operative conveyancing panel in order to deal with redeeming my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Co-operative conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their panel criteria fairly frequently currently.
Have just purchased a probate house at auction in Sydenham. Conveyancing is needed. What is next?
Now that you are exchanged you now have to hire the services of a conveyancing solicitor as a matter of priority as you are faced with a tight a fixed date to complete the deal. All auction property will have a corresponding legal set of papers. This will include most,if not all of the paperwork that your solicitor requires. If you have purchased leasehold premises the auction pack should contain a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and other conveyancing documentation relating to leasehold premises. You should hand this to your appointed conveyancing solicitor at the earliest opportunity. You also need to ensure that you have funds in place to complete the transaction on the set completion date.
Planning on purchasing a flat in Sydenham. I have received an online quote from a licenced conveyancer, which states: "There will be no charge for dealing with the Building Society if you are obtaining a mortgage". I take this to mean that there will be no additional fee if the solicitor is on the HSBC conveyancing panel. I wanted to make sure it means there will be no additional fees for dealing with the mortgage.
They are simply saying that the cost for acting for the lender is included in the fee being quoted. It is worth you checking that the Sydenham lawyer is on the HSBC conveyancing panel.
I have instructed a Sydenham solicitor having made sure that they are on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?
Leeds Building Society will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Leeds Building Society will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. You may wish to consider appointing your own Sydenham surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller.
I am looking for a flat up to £245,000 and found one near me in Sydenham I like with a park and transport links in the vicinity, however it only has 51 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Sydenham suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?
Should you need a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will be an issue. Reduce the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you could request that they commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor concerning this.
We're novice buyers - agreed a price, yet the agent informed us that the seller will only proceed if we use the agent's recommended lawyers as they are insisting on an ‘expedited deal’. My instinct tells me that we should use a family conveyancer with experience of conveyancing in Sydenham
We suspect that the owner is unaware of this request. If they desire ‘a quick sale', taking such a hostile approach to a genuine buyer is likely to cause more damage than good. Speak to the owners direct and explain that (a)you are genuine buyers (b)you are ready to go, with mortgage lined up © you are chain free (d) you intend to proceed fast (e)however you are going to use your own,trusted Sydenham conveyancing lawyers - as opposed tothe ones that will give their estate agent a commission or hit his conveyancing figures pre-set by senior management.