I am need of leasehold conveyancing for a flat in a fairly new development (6 years old) in Ottery St Mary. 95% of the properties are already disposed of. Is it really necessary to order neighbourhood searches for my conveyancing in Ottery St Mary?

If you are acquiring a property with the assistance of a loan, your mortgage company will require some (many) of the searches so you'll have no choice. If not, then Ottery St Mary conveyancing searches are optional. No doubt your conveyancer, will ’encourage’, perhaps in the strongest possible terms, that you should not go ahead without searches, but he or she is duty bound in this regard. One thing to bear in mind; if you are likely to sell the house one day, it may be of interest to your future buyer what the searches contain. Sometimes houses with no practical issues can still throw up adverse search results. But if you insist that your lawyer to proceed without searches then your lawyer will have to follow your instructions or ask you to appoint a different lawyer for your conveyancing in Ottery St Mary.

Completed the sale of my flat in Ottery St Mary last June but our buyer keeps e-mailing me to moan that their solicitor needs to hear from mine. What should have happened following completion?

Post completion of your sale your lawyer should forward the transfer documentation and all of the paperwork to the buyer’s solicitors. Depending on the transaction, your conveyancer should also confirm that the home loan has been repaid to the purchasers conveyancers. There is unlikely to be post completion formalities peculiar conveyancing in Ottery St Mary.

I'm buying a new build house in Ottery St Mary with a loan from Barclays Direct. The developers refused to move on the price so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The property agent told me not reveal to my conveyancer about this side-deal as it will affect my mortgage with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder 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.

Should I instruct a Ottery St Mary conveyancing practitioner who is local to the property I am hoping to buy? I have an old university friend who can handle the legal formalities however his firm is located 400kilometers drive away.

The primary upside of using a local Ottery St Mary conveyancing firm is that you can visit the firm to sign paperwork, deliver your ID and pester them where appropriate. They will also have local insight which is a plus. That being said nothing is more important than finding someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If other friends have used your friend and on the whole were happy that should trump using an unfamiliar Ottery St Mary conveyancing solicitor just because they are local.

When it comes to leasehold conveyancing in Ottery St Mary what are the most common lease defects?

Leasehold conveyancing in Ottery St Mary is not unique. Most leases are individual and drafting errors can result in certain clauses are not included. The following missing provisions could result in a defective lease:

A duty to insure the building

A defective lease will likely cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. National Westminster Bank, Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, and Barclays Direct all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to pull out.

Ottery St Mary Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries before buying

How many years are left on the lease? The best form of lease arrangement is a share of the freehold. In this scenario the tenants have control and although a managing agent is frequently retained where the building is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent employed by the leaseholders. Best to be warned whether a new roof is being put on or some other major work is pending to be shared amongst the leaseholders and will dramatically increase the the service costs or require a specific payment.