Having sold my house in Woodlands last July but our buyer keeps telephoning daily to moan that their lawyer is waiting to hear from mine. What are the post completion sale formalities following completion?
After completion of your disposal your lawyer should send the transfer deeds and all supplemental paperwork to the purchaser's lawyers. Depending on the transaction, your conveyancer must also evidence that the home loan has been repaid to the purchasers lawyers. There is unlikely to be post completion tasks unique to conveyancing in Woodlands.
What happens if my lawyer’s firm is suspended from the UBS Conveyancing panel ahead of completing my conveyancing in Woodlands?
First, this is very unlikely to happen. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have to instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by a regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit at a cost.
I have been told that property searches are a common cause of delay in Woodlands conveyancing transactions. Is there any truth in this?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) published findings of research by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not feature within the most frequent causes of delays during the legal transfer of property. Searches are unlikely to feature in any delay in conveyancing in Woodlands.
I own a renovated Edwardian house in Woodlands. Conveyancing practitioner acted for me and Yorkshire Building Society. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw two entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold under the matching property. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?
You need to read the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Woodlands and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with buyers. You can also question the situation with your conveyancing lawyer who conducted the work.
How does conveyancing in Woodlands differ for new build properties?
Most buyers of new build property in Woodlands come to us having been asked by the builder to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the premises is constructed. This is because developers in Woodlands usually acquire the site, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancers as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are used to new build conveyancing in Woodlands or who has acted in the same development.
The property lawyers undertaking our conveyancing in Woodlands has forwarded papers to review that reveal that the land is unregistered with epitome documents. Is it not the case that all properties in Woodlands should be registered?
Whilst the vast majorities of properties in Woodlands are now registered with the Land Registry there are still some that are unregistered. Any property in Woodlands that has been transferred since the late 1980’s will have been registered at the HM Land Registry under the compulsory ‘first registration’ scheme. However, if a Woodlands property has not changed hands in that time then it’s likely the old fashioned title deeds will be the only evidence of ownership.Plenty of Woodlands conveyancing practitioners should be familiar with such matters but where uncertainty prevails the conventional recommendation nowadays is for the current owners to register the title first and then sell - this will have a domino effect to cause a significant delay.