I am assisting my niece sell her house in Enfield. Will the solicitor commission the EPC or should I organise this?

After the demise of Home Packs, energy performance certificates was kept a mandatory element of selling a house. An energy assessment should be to hand before the property is placed on the market. It is not a task that law firms ordinarily organise. If you are using a Enfield conveyancing practitioner they may help arrange EPC’s given their relationships with long established local energy assessors

When it comes to mortgage companies such as Nationwide, do Enfield property lawyers face an annual charge to be on the list of approved solicitors?

We are unaware of any lender fees to register on their panel, although some do charge an administration charge to deal with the processing of the conveyancing panel submission.

After shopping around on the internet I have found a Enfield lawyer having checked that they are on the Co-operative conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?

Co-operative will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Co-operative will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. You may wish to consider appointing your own Enfield surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller.

Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up as part of conveyancing in Enfield?

Covenants that are restrictive in nature can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Enfield. 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…’

How does conveyancing in Enfield differ for new build properties?

Most buyers of new build premises in Enfield contact us having been asked by the housebuilder to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the premises is ready to move into. This is because house builders in Enfield tend to purchase the site, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancers as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are accustomed to new build conveyancing in Enfield or who has acted in the same development.

I have been on the look out for a ground for flat up to £235,500 and found one close by in Enfield I like with a park and railway links nearby, the downside is that it only has 61 years on the lease. There is not much else in Enfield suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a short lease?

Should you need a mortgage the shortness of the lease may be a potential deal breaker. Discount the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you may ask them to start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this matter.

I have just started marketing my ground floor flat in Enfield.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated however I have recently received a quarterly service charge invoice – Do I pay up?

The sensible thing to do is discharge the service charge as you normally would given that all ground rent and service payments should be allottedon completion, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the subsequent invoice date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process