My husband and I are hoping to acquire a home in Oxton and are in fact using a Oxton conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. TSB have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Oxton solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is normal 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 Quality 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Oxton lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
A relative suggested that if I am buying in Oxton I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is occasionally included in the estimate for your Oxton conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of about 40 pages, listing and setting out significant information about Oxton around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Oxton Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information about Oxton.
It has been four months since my purchase conveyancing in Oxton took place. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £200,000 when infact I paid £170,000. Why the discrepancy?
The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the residence from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.
I'm purchasing a new build house in Oxton with a loan from Virgin Money. The developers would not budge the price so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The sale representative told me not reveal to my lawyer about the side-deal as it will put at risk my loan with Virgin Money. 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.
I have been on the look out for a flat up to £245,000 and found one near me in Oxton I like with open areas and railway links nearby, the downside is that it only has 52 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Oxton in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a short lease?
Should you require a home loan the shortness of the lease will likely be a potential deal breaker. Reduce the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you may request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this matter.