The owners have rather brash sellers who has insisted on a exclusivity contract with a down payment 6,000. Is it wise to enter into such agreements?

Lock out agreements are contracts binding a property vendor and purchaser granting the buyer a ‘clear field’ to purchase the premises for a certain period of time. For all intents and purposes, a lock out agreement is a contract stating that you will receive a contract at a later date being the contract for the actual sale. It is generally utilised for buyer confidence though in some cases, the seller may stand to benefit from such agreements as well. There are numerous positives and negatives to having an agreement but you need to check with your conveyancer but note that it may end up incurring extra in conveyancing charges. In light of this these contracts are not popular in relation to conveyancing in Colindale.

I am helping my step-mother sell her house in Colindale. Will the conveyancer commission an EPC or it is for the seller to coordinate?

Following the demise of Home Packs, EPC’s was kept a compulsory component of moving house. An energy performance certificate needs to be commissioned in advance of the property being advertised. This is not a task that lawyers normally organise. If you are instructing a Colindale conveyancing solicitor they may be willing to arrange energy assessments given their relationships with long established Colindale assessors

We had selected conveyancers based in Colindale on the Coventry BS solicitor approved list. They are now charging me a supplemental amount for dealing with the Coventry BS mortgage. Is this a supplemental conveyancing fee set by Coventry BS?

As unfair as it may seem, as long as it’s in their Terms and Conditions or Quote then yes your property lawyer may charge a fee for this. This charge is not dictated by Coventry BS but by your Colindale conveyancing practitioner. Some firms on the Coventry BS panel will quote an ‘acting for lender’ fee and others do not.

Skipton have agreed my home loan in principle, my bid on a house in Colindale has been agreed to, what are the next steps?

The property agent will wish to know who your solicitors are (be sure the conveyancers are on the lender’s approved list). Call up Skipton or your broker and finalise any appropriate paperwork. Skipton will instruct a valuer who will get in touch with the selling agent or owners to arrange a time for the valuation to happen. Once carried out (assuming no problems) it takes about a fortnight for the mortgage offer to be issued. Skipton will send the offer to you and your solicitors. The legal work will then take it’s course according the nature and complexity of the conveyancing in Colindale.

My friend recommended that if I am buying in Colindale I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?

This is a search is occasionally included in the estimate for your Colindale conveyancing searches. It is a large report of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out important information about Colindale 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 details, Colindale Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information concerning Colindale.

I am buying a new build house in Colindale with a loan from Nottingham Building Society. The developers refused to move on the price so I negotiated 6k of fixtures and fittings instead. The estate agent suggested that I not to tell my solicitor about this deal as it will impact my loan with the bank. Should I keep quiet?.

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

My partner is purchasing a shared ownership flat in Colindale. He was given a quote by the lawyer connected to the selling agents totaling £1245 . It was eight years ago since I sold and bought a home and the fee was £440. Have costs really gone up that much?

What does the conveyancing estimate include? Is it just for the legal fees, or what you will be paying in total (for instance Colindale searches, land registry fees, etc)