It is 10 years ago since I bought my home in Harrow. Conveyancing lawyers have just been instructed on the sale but I am unable to find the deeds. Will this jeopardise the sale?
Don’t worry too much. Firstly the deeds may be kept by the mortgage company or they could be in the possession of the solicitor who handled the purchase. Secondly in most cases the title will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you own the property by your conveyancing solicitors procuring current official copies of the land registers. The vast majority of conveyancing in Harrow relates to registered property but in the unlikely event that your property is unregistered it adds to the complexity but is not insurmountable.
My wife and I are buying a property in Harrow. I might seem paranoid but how we can trust a conveyancer? At some point we will need to deposit our life savings into their account. What protection do we have from them run away with our monies?
Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.
My partner and I are spending time looking at apartments in Harrow and I am about to put in an offer. Is it premature to have a solicitor in place? I will be getting a home loan with TSB.
You should start obtaining conveyancing quotes from solicitors ASAP. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and pass their details on to the selling agent. As you are obtaining a mortgage with TSB, make sure you remember to check that your lawyer is on the TSB conveyancing panel.
I have a mortgage with Santander for my property in Harrow. Conveyancing has been completed some time ago. Should I wish 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 Santander?
Santander must be informed of your intention in advance of renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Santander’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let 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 Santander directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Santander conveyancing panel solicitor.
My friend suggested that where I am purchasing in Harrow I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is occasionally included in the estimate for your Harrow conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out significant information about Harrow around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Harrow Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Harrow Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data concerning Harrow.
My wife and I purchased a 4 bedroom Edwardian house in Harrow. Conveyancing practitioner acted for me and Bank of Ireland. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are a couple of entries: the first freehold, another for leasehold under the matching address. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?
You should review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for 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 Harrow and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with buyers. You can also enquire as to the situation with your conveyancing solicitor who carried out the work.
What tools are available to search for a Harrow law firm on the Birmingham Midshires conveyancing panel? I have a car and am prepared to travel upto 20miles to meet the conveyancer.
Feel free to make use of the tool on this website. Please select a lender and your location and you will see a number of Harrow conveyancing lawyers based on proximity. We have detailed some Harrow conveyancing firms towards the end of this page and you can call them to verify whether they are on the Birmingham Midshires approved list