My fiance and I are hoping to purchase a flat in Verwood and have appointed a Verwood conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Nationwide Building Society have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Verwood solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your lender 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Verwood lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
I do hope you can assist me. My Verwood lawyer is advising me that he has toorder Verwood conveyancing searches due to the fact thatthe firm are on the Virgin Moneysolicitor panel. Do I not have any options here?
You have limited options available to you. As you are taking a mortgage with a mortgage company your conveyancing practitioner has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your conveyancer would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of your bank’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to comply with the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook conditions . Even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out Verwood conveyancing searches.
What does a local search reveal concerning the property my wife and I purchasing in Verwood?
Verwood conveyancing often starts with the submitting local authority searches directly from your local Authority or through a personal search organisations for example PSG The local search plays a central role in many a Verwood conveyancing purchase; as long as you don’t want any nasty surprises after you move into your property. The search should provide data on, amongst other things, details on planning applications relevant 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 subject headings.
Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to our home are lost. The conveyancers who handled the conveyancing in Verwood 4 years ago are no longer around. Will I be able to sell the house?
You no longer need to hold title deeds to establish that you own the land or premises, as the Land Registry hold details of all registered land or property electronically.
Looking forward to sign contracts shortly on a basement flat in Verwood. Conveyancing lawyers assured me that they are sending me a report next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?
The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Verwood should include some of the following:
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Rent payments - what is payable and when is collected, and also know whether this is subject to change Specifying your rights in relation to common areas in the block.E.G., does the lease include a right of way over a path or staircase? The length of the lease term. You should receive guidance as what happens when the lease expires, and aware of the importance of not letting the lease term falling below eighty years Where does the liability rest for repairing the window frames Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice?
I bought a ground floor flat in Verwood, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Similar flats in Verwood with over 90 years remaining are worth £227,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 per annum. The lease ceases on 21st October 2097
You have 72 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £9,500 and £11,000 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.
The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more comprehensive due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.
I am expecting to exchange on the purchase a property in Verwood but as a consequence of damage from the recent storms I have negotiated compensation from the owner of £2k taking the form of a adjustment in the price. I had intended this to be dealt with as part of the conveyancing process however the bank will not agree to this. Should they have been notified?
Any lawyer listed on a lender approved list is required to advise the mortgage company of any variations to the sale figure. If you did not allow your property lawyer to report the price change to your mortgage company then they would need to refrain from representing you and the mortgage company.