My family solicitor has given a fee calculation of £1150 for no sale no fee conveyancing in Canonbury. I’m hoping to sell a Edwardian property for £175,000. Are these conveyancing fees excessive? Is it in excess of the average fee for conveyancing in Canonbury?
The costs illustration is slightly on the expensive side. Where you are content to spend time comparing quotes you could trim some of the expense by say £100 plus VAT. On the other hand, you maycome to rue choosing an a cheaper conveyancer. Don't forget to be sure the conveyancer can also act for your bank. You can make use of our comparison tool to choose a Canonbury conveyancing firm on the lender’s approved list of lawyers which can often include conveyancing solicitors in Canonbury.
The Canonbury conveyancing solicitors that I appointed last week on my purchase in Canonbury have without warning closed. They were on acting for me because I needed a lawyer on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel and my previous Canonbury lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take one hundred and fifty pounds for searches. What should be my next steps?
If you have an estate agent involved then let them know immediately so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors should be in a position to help.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up during conveyancing in Canonbury?
Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Canonbury. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’
I am thinking of appointing a conveyancing solicitor in Canonbury for my sale. Is there any facility to see a solicitor's complaints history with the profession’s regulator?
Anyone can review presented Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) decisions stemming from investigations from 2008 onwards. Go to Check a solicitor's record. To find information Pre 2008, or to check a firm's record, telephone 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 any week day save for Tuesday when lines open at 9.30am. For callers outside the UK, use +44 (0)121 329 6800. The regulator sometimes monitor call for training reasons.
One month into purchasing a house in Canonbury. Conveyancing lawyer has called to say the title is "Leasehold". Will this likely make a difference on our HSBC valuation?
Canonbury conveyancing does not usually involve leasehold houses. The key consideration here is the length of lease and the ground rent. If it's 999 years with a nominal rent, it's virtually freehold, so it shouldn't impact the marketability too much.
At the other extreme, if it's, say, Sixty years it will have a adverse effect on the value, and most likely wouldn't be mortgageable. The length of lease and ground rent will be stated in the lease provided to your solicitor.