As a first time buyer what is the most important piece of guidance you can give me regarding purchase conveyancing in Roker?

Not many law firms shout this from the rooftops but conveyancing in Roker or throughout England and Wales is often a confrontational experience. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there is lots of opportunity for friction between you and other parties involved in the transaction. E.g., the seller, selling agent and sometimes your mortgage company. Appointing a law firm for your conveyancing in Roker an important selection as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONE party in the transaction whose responsibility is to act in your legal interests and to protect you.

We are witnessing a worrying ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone has to be at fault for the process taking so long. We recommend that you your first instinct should be to trust your solicitor ahead of all other parties when it comes to the legal assignment of property.

I have been referred to a conveyancing solicitor in Roker. I I would like to check if they are on the Halifax conveyancing panel. Can you advise?

The first thing you should do is contact the lawyer and enquire if they are on the lender panel. Alternatively you can call Halifax who may be able to help.

Should our conveyancer be asking questions about flooding as part of the conveyancing in Roker.

Flooding is a growing risk for conveyancers dealing with homes in Roker. Plenty of people will purchase a property in Roker, completely expectant that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical destruction, where a property is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, suitable building insurance, or dispose of the property. There are steps that can be taken as part of the conveyancing process to forewarn the purchaser.

Conveyancers are not qualified to impart advice on flood risk, but there are a numerous searches that may be carried out by the buyer or by their solicitors which should figure out the risks in Roker. The conventional set of property information forms supplied to a buyer’s lawyer (where the Conveyancing Protocol is adopted) contains a standard question of the vendor to find out whether the property has suffered from flooding. If the premises has been flooded in past and is not revealed by the seller, then a buyer may issue a legal claim for losses resulting from an inaccurate answer. The buyer’s conveyancers may also conduct an environmental search. This should disclose if there is a recorded flood risk. If so, further inquiries should be carried out.

I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I put an offer in last month in what was supposed to be a simple, chain free conveyancing. Roker is where the house is located. Can you offer any guidance?

Flying freeholds in Roker are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Roker you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds diligently. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Roker may decide that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold property.

I am looking at a couple of apartments in Roker both have in the region of fifty years left on the lease term. Do I need to be concerned?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in Roker is a deteriorating asset as a result of the reducing lease term. The nearer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it adversely affects the value of the premises. For most purchasers and banks, leases with less than 75 years become less and less attractive. On a more upbeat note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a residence with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Roker conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease. They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that any new terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Roker - A selection of Questions you should ask before buying

The best form of lease structure is if the freehold title is owned by the leaseholders. In this arrangement the leaseholders benefit from control and although a managing agent is frequently employed where it is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants. If a Roker lease has no more than eighty years it will impact the salability of the apartment. It is worth checking with your lender that they are willing to go ahead with the loan given the lease term. A short lease means that you will most likely require a lease extension sooner rather than later and it is worth discovering how much this would cost. Remember, in most cases you would be be obliged to have owned the premises for 24 months in order to be entitled to carry out a lease extension. The majority of Roker leasehold apartments will have a service charge for maintenance of the block levied on behalf of the landlord. If you acquire the apartment you will have to pay this liability, usually quarterly throughout the year. This can be anything from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a rentcharge for you to pay yearly, normally this is not a exorbitant amount, say about £25-£75 but you should to enquire as sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds.