My wife and I are looking to purchase a flat in Sydenham Hill and have appointed a Sydenham Hill conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Norwich and Peterborough Building Society have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Sydenham Hill lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for the purchaser's lender. 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 Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your mortgage company and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Sydenham Hill lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
Do conveyancers request an advanced payment when it comes to conveyancing in Sydenham Hill?
Where you are retaining lawyers for conveyancing in Sydenham Hill your lawyer will ask you place them with funds to cover the search fees. Normally this is requested to cover the fees of the Local Authority Search. When the down payment is as part of the purchase price then this should be asked for shortly in advance of contracts are exchanged. Any further balance that is needed should be sent to your lawyer shortly before completion.
What will a local search inform me about the property I am buying in Sydenham Hill?
Sydenham Hill conveyancing often starts with the ordering local authority searches directly from your local Authority or via a personal search company for example Searches UK The local search is essential in every Sydenham Hill conveyancing purchase; that is if you wish to avoid any nasty surprises after you move into your new home. The search should provide information on, amongst other things, details on planning applications applicable to the premises (whether granted or refused), building control history, any enforcement action, restrictions on permitted development, nearby road schemes, contaminated land and radon gas; in all a total of thirteen topic headings.
I'm purchasing my first flat in Sydenham Hill benefiting from help to buy. The sellers refused to move on the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of extras instead. The sale representative suggested that I not to tell my conveyancer about the deal as it may put at risk my loan with the bank. Should I keep quiet?.
All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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 issue on a house I have offered on last month in what should have been a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. Sydenham Hill is where the house is located. Can you shed any light on this issue?
Flying freeholds in Sydenham Hill are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Sydenham Hill 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 Sydenham Hill 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 residence.
I work for a busy estate agent office in Sydenham Hill where we see a number of flat sales derailed as a result of short leases. I have received inconsistent advice from local Sydenham Hill conveyancing solicitors. Can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?
Provided that the seller has owned the lease 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 proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, 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 buyer.
I am the registered owner of a first floor flat in Sydenham Hill. In the absence of agreement between myself and the landlord, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the sum due for a lease extension?
Most certainly. We can put you in touch with a Sydenham Hill conveyancing firm who can help.
An example of a Lease Extension case for a Sydenham Hill property is Flat 5 4 Border Crescent in December 2013. the tribunal calculated that premium payable for the acquisition of a lease extension of the subject premises was in the sum of £14,900 (Fourteen thousand, nine hundred pounds). Those advising the applicant were advised to send a copy of the decision and a copy of the new lease with the premium (less the applicants costs as assessed by the Court) to the Croydon County Court (under claim number 3CR01226) for an officer of the Court to execute the new lease on behalf of the absentee landlord who is missing and cannot be traced). This case affected 1 flat. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 69 years.
