It is a dozen years since I acquired my house in Milton Keynes. Conveyancing lawyers have now been appointed on the sale but I can't find my title deeds. Will this cause complications?
Don’t worry too much. Firstly there is a chance that the deeds will be retained by the lender or they may stored with the conveyancers who oversaw your purchase. Secondly in all probability the land will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to prove you are the registered owner by your conveyancing solicitors procuring current official copies of the land registers. Almost all conveyancing in Milton Keynes relates to registered property but in the unlikely event that your home is unregistered it is more problematic but is not insurmountable.
Please explain the implications if my solicitor is suspended from the Nottingham Solicitor panel ahead of completing my conveyancing in Milton Keynes?
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 for a fee.
A friend recommended that where I am purchasing in Milton Keynes I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
This is a search is usually included in the estimate for your Milton Keynes conveyancing searches. It is a large report of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing significant information about Milton Keynes around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Milton Keynes Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime details, Milton Keynes Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information about Milton Keynes.
We're novice buyers - agreed a price, but the selling agent informed us that the vendor will only issue a contract if we use their recommended lawyers as they are insisting on a ‘quick sale’. We would rather use a family solicitor used to conveyancing in Milton Keynes
We suspect that the seller is not behind this ultimatum. Should the owner desire ‘a quick sale', turning down a genuine purchaser is not the way to achieve this. Speak to the owners direct and make sure they understand (a)you are motivated purchasers (b)you are excited to move forward, with mortgage lined up © you are chain free (d) you intend to proceed fast (e)however you are going to appoint your own,trusted Milton Keynes conveyancing solicitors - not the ones that will give their negotiator at the agency a referral fee or meet his conveyancing targets set by corporate headquarters.
I have recently placed an offer on an apartment in Milton Keynes and the broker that we are dealing with suggested his property lawyer. They quoted a thousand pounds excluding VAT and 3rd party costs. Does this sound like a good deal?
Don't just go on 1 quote. One should obtain like-for-like quotes for your conveyancing in Milton Keynes. Then pick one that you trust and just as important, is on the approved list of the bank that you have applied for a mortgage from.