My property lawyer in Woodbury is not on the Nationwide Building Society Conveyancing Panel. Can I still use my family solicitor even though they are not on the Nationwide Building Society panel?
The limited options open to you here include:
- Complete the purchase with your existing Woodbury solicitors but Nationwide Building Society will need to retain a lawyer on their panel. This will inevitably rack up the overall legal charges and result in frustration.
- Choose an alternative solicitor to to deal with the conveyancing, not forgetting to check they are Persuade your lawyer to do everything within their powers to join the Nationwide Building Society conveyancing panel
I am helping my mother sell her house in Woodbury. Will the conveyancing solicitor order the energy performance certificate or it is for the seller to see to?
After the abolition of Home Packs, energy assessments was left as a mandatory element of moving house. An energy assessment should be to hand before the property is advertised. It is not something that solicitors normally arrange. If you are instructing a Woodbury conveyancing practitioner they may help arrange EPC’s due to their contacts with long established local assessors
My fiancee and I are at the point of looking at apartments in Woodbury and I am about to put in an offer. Is it best to have my conveyancer on ‘stand by’? I am planning to take a mortgage with Clydesdale.
It would be wise to start your search sooner rather than later. Once you decide who you want to use and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and pass their contact information on to the selling agent. As you are obtaining a mortgage with Clydesdale, ask your prospective lawyers if they are on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel otherwise they can't do the mortgage legal work.
The mortgage over my property is with Yorkshire BS for my property in Woodbury. Conveyancing was finalised months ago. If I am intending to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform Yorkshire BS?
Yorkshire BS must be informed of your intention before renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Yorkshire BS’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 Yorkshire BS directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel firm.
I purchased a semi-detached Georgian house in Woodbury. Conveyancing practitioner acted for me and The Mortgage Works. I did a free Land Registry search last week and there are a couple of entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold under the exact same property. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?
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 Woodbury and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with purchasers. You can also enquire as to the situation with your conveyancing lawyer who completed the work.
I am purchasing a new build house in Woodbury with a mortgage from Halifax. The builders would not reduce the amount so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The property agent told me not reveal to my conveyancer about this extras as it will affect my mortgage with the bank. 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 ground for flat up to £235,500 and found one close by in Woodbury I like with amenity areas and station in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 52 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Woodbury in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a lease with such few years left?
Should you need a mortgage that many years will be a potential deal breaker. Reduce the price by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing proprietor has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you can request that they start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor about this.