We are selling our house in Pickering. Does the conveyancing practitioner have to be required to be on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel in order to deal with repayment of my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their specifications fairly frequently currently.

A colleague advised me that if I am buying in Pickering 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 usually included in the estimate for your Pickering conveyancing searches. It is a large document of about 40 pages, listing and detailing significant information about Pickering around the property and the people living there. It incorporates 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 House Prices, Crime details, Pickering Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information concerning Pickering.

Just had an offer accepted on a new build apartment in Pickering. Conveyancing is a frightening process at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. What sort of enquires would be asked in new build legal work.

Set out below are examples of a selection of leasehold new build enquiries that you may expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Pickering

If there are lifts in the building, please confirm that the owners of flats on the ground and basement floors will not be required to contribute towards the cost of maintenance and renewal. Investor purchasers must be able to freely grant unsecured tenancies at market rents without requiring any consents. Where there is an Undertaking being granted there is the risk of forfeiture of the Headlease subject to relief if one or more of the Underlessees are willing to accept the original Head Lessee’s obligations as otherwise relief will be denied to the Underlessees. The only alternatives are the Head Lessor agreeing not to forfeit the Headlease or the Head Lessee guaranteeing to the Underlessees that it will not be in breach of the Headlease. Please supply a car parking plan.

What advice can you give us when it comes to finding a Pickering conveyancing practice to carry out our lease extension conveyancing?

When appointing a conveyancer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a Pickering conveyancing practice) it is most important that he or she should be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you speak with several firms including non Pickering conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then that’s a bonus. The following questions could be useful:

If they are not ALEP accredited then what is the reason?

Pickering Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Questions you should consider before Purchasing

How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their maintenance charge payments? The answer will be helpful as a) areas could cause problems in the block as the common areas may begin to deteriorate if repairs are not paid for b) if the tenants have an issue with the managing agents you will want to know about it You should be aware that where the lease has less than eighty years it will impact the salability of the flat. It is worth checking with your lender that they are willing to go ahead with the loan given the lease term. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will probably have to extend the lease at some point and it is worth discovering how much this would cost. For most Pickeringlease extensions you would need to own the premises for 24 months in order to be entitled to extend the lease.

Our solicitor in Pickering has discovered a a legal deficiency with the lease for the apartment we are purchasing in Pickering. The seller’s lawyers have put forward title insurance as a solution. We are happy with insurance and will pay for it. Our solicitor has advised that as he is on the lender conveyancing panel he must be satisfied that the lender is happy with this solution. Are we the client or is the mortgage company?

The short answer to your last question is that, notwithstanding the potential for a conflict of interest, you and the bank are the client. A precondition to being on the mortgage company approved panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions require your lawyer to disclose issues such as defects will the lease so that the bank can be afforded the opportunity to check with their valuer as to the extent that the value of the property is affected . 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.