Some advice if I may. My Wealdstone lawyer is assuring me that he is legally obliged toapply for Wealdstone conveyancing searches becausethe firm are on the HSBCapproved lawyer panel. Is my conveyancer right?
Unfortunately both you and your lawyer have little choice here. As you are taking a home loan with a bank your solicitor has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your solicitor would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of your bank’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to follow the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook specifications . Even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out Wealdstone conveyancing searches.
It is a dozen years since I purchased my property in Wealdstone. Conveyancing lawyers have just been instructed on the sale but I am unable to locate my title documents. Is this a major issue?
Don’t worry too much. First the deeds may be retained by your mortgage company or they may stored with the lawyers who handled your purchase. Secondly in all probability the property will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to prove you own the property by your conveyancing solicitors procuring current official copies of the land registers. Most conveyancing in Wealdstone relates to registered property but in the rare situation where your property is not registered it is more problematic but is resolvable.
This question may be naive but I am new to the house moving as FTB of a garden flat in Wealdstone. Do I receive the keys to the house on completion from my conveyancer? If so, I will appoint a local conveyancing solicitor in Wealdstone?
On the day of completion you will not be required to attend the conveyancers office in Wealdstone. Your solicitors will arrange to send the completion advance to the vendor’s lawyers, and shortly after the monies have arrived, you should be able to receive the keys from the property Agents and start moving into the property. Usually this happens early afternoon.
The mortgage over my property is with HSBC for my property in Wealdstone. Conveyancing has been completed months ago. Should I wish to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform HSBC?
HSBC must be informed of your intention in advance of letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of HSBC’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will allow you to rent out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact HSBC directly. You need not do this via a HSBC conveyancing panel solicitor.
After much negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in Wealdstone. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their solicitor. I paid an on account payment of £175. Not long after, the conveyancing practitioner contacted me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Yorkshire BS 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 Yorkshire BS 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.
Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my home are lost. The conveyancers who dealt with the conveyancing in Wealdstone 4 years ago have long since closed. What do I do?
You no longer need to have the physical original deeds to prove you are the registered proprietor of land or property, given that the Land Registry hold details of all registered land or property electronically.
I was pointed in your direction by a number of selling agents in Wealdstone to get a quote from a property lawyer on your site. What’s the financial advantage for Estate Agents to promote your lawyers over and above another?
We don’t make any financial incentive for pointing buyers and sellers our way. We thought it would be too underhand a fee because a client could think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I receiving any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.
There are only Sixty One years unexpired on my lease in Wealdstone. I now want to get lease extension but my freeholder is can not be found. What should I do?
If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. You will be obliged to prove that you have done all that could be expected to find the landlord. On the whole a specialist would be useful to conduct investigations and prepare a report to be used as evidence that the landlord is indeed missing. It is wise to seek advice from a property lawyer in relation to investigating the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court overseeing Wealdstone.
I have attempted and failed to negotiate with my landlord to extend my lease without any joy. Can a leaseholder apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal? Can you recommend a Wealdstone conveyancing firm to act on my behalf?
Where there is a absentee freeholder or where there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to make a decision on the price payable.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a Wealdstone residence is 139/139A Masons Avenue in February 2010. this was a case with an absentee freeholder. As a result the leaseholders applied to Willesden County Court for an order dispensing with the giving of a notice of claim.14th October 2009 District Judge Brar granted a vesting order and the court directed that the matter should be transferred to this tribunal to determine the freehold premium. The tribunal concluded on a figure of £13,000 for the freehold interest This case was in relation to 1 flat. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 74 years.