My Woodhall Spa lawyer has discovered a discrepancy between the surveyor’s assumptions in the valuation survey and what is revealed within the title deeds. My lawyer says that he is duty bound to check that the bank is OK with this discrepancy and is still content to lend. Is my lawyer’s stance correct?
Your conveyancer must comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements which do require that your lawyer disclose any incorrect assumptions in the lender’s valuation report and the legal papers. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your lawyer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.
Finally the sale completed on my house in Woodhall Spa last April but our buyer keeps SMS messaging every few hours to say her solicitor needs to hear from mine. What should my lawyer have done following completion?
Following your sale your conveyancer should forward the transfer documentation and all supplemental paperwork to the purchaser's conveyancer. Depending on the transaction, your conveyancer should also send confirmation that the mortgage has been paid off to the purchasers solicitors. There is unlikely to be post completion requirements just for conveyancing in Woodhall Spa.
My property lawyer in Woodhall Spa has never been on on the Clydesdale Conveyancing Panel. Is it possible for me to use my family solicitor notwithstanding that they are excluded from the Clydesdale panel?
Your options are as follows:
- Carry on with your existing Woodhall Spa solicitors but Clydesdale will need to retain a conveyancer on their list of acceptable firms. This will inevitably rack up the total conveyancing charges as well as result in delays.
- Get a new lawyer to act in the conveyancing, obviously checking they are on the Clydesdale panel
My colleague suggested that if I am purchasing in Woodhall Spa I should ask my conveyancer to carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
A search of this type is occasionally quoted for as part of the standard Woodhall Spa conveyancing searches. It is a large report of about 40 pages, listing and detailing significant information about Woodhall Spa around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Woodhall Spa Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information regarding Woodhall Spa.
I am employed by a reputable estate agency in Woodhall Spa where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Woodhall Spa conveyancing firms. Please can you clarify whether the seller of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the buyer?
Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.
Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the buyer.
Woodhall Spa Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Sample of Questions you should consider before buying
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The majority of Woodhall Spa leasehold apartments will have a service charge for maintenance of the block levied by the landlord. Where you buy the property you will have to meet this amount, normally quarterly accross the year. This may vary from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large common grounds. In all likelihood there will be a ground rent for you to pay annual, ordinarily this is not a significant figure, say around £25-£75 but you should to check it because sometimes it can be many hundreds of pounds. Is the freehold owned collectively by the leaseholders?