The Blackley conveyancing firm that I recently instructed on my house acquisition in Blackley have suddenly closed. I only went with them because I had to have a lawyer on the Principality conveyancing panel and my previous Blackley lawyer was not. I issued them a cheque for £250 in advance. What should be my next steps?
If you have an estate agent involved then let them know straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Principality conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors should be in a position to help.
Various web forums that I have come across warn that are a common cause of obstruction in Blackley house deals. Is there any truth in this?
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) published conclusions of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not figure amongst the most frequent causes of delays in the conveyancing process. Searches are unlikely to feature in any holding up conveyancing in Blackley.
Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly identified as part of conveyancing in Blackley?
Covenants that are restrictive in nature can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in Blackley. 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…’
Due to the input of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a house in Blackley prior to appointing solicitors. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. Our surveyor advised that some lenders may refuse to grant a loan on a flying freehold house.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Santander has different requirements for example to Halifax. Should you wish to telephone us we can investigate further with the relevant lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Blackley. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Blackley to see if the conveyancing will be more expensive.
Am I better off to instruct a Blackley conveyancing solicitor based in the location that I am hoping to buy? We have a good friend who can deal with the legal work however her office is 200kilometers drive away.
The primary upside of using a high street Blackley conveyancing practice is that you can drop in to sign documents, hand in your identification documents and pester them where appropriate. They will also have local knowledge which is a plus. However it's more important to get someone that will do a good and efficient job. If if people you trust used your friend and the majority were impressed that should trump using an unknown Blackley conveyancing solicitor solely due to them being based in the area.