I am acquiring a property for cash in Blaenavon. I have lived for the last Seventeen years in Blaenavon. Conveyancing searches are a lot of money. Given that I know the area and road very well must I have all the conveyancing searches?
Provided that you do not need a mortgage, then the vast majority of the Blaenavon conveyancing searches are at your discretion. Your solicitor will try and sway you, perhaps strongly, that you should have searches carried out, but he has a professional duty to take that path of guidance. Do consider; if you are going to sell the house one day, it could be of relevance to your future purchaser what the searches contain. On occasion properties with apparent issues can still throw up unfavourable search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in Blaenavon should be able to give you some sensible guidance concerning this.
Why do I have to pay up front when it comes to conveyancing in Blaenavon?
Where you are retaining lawyers for conveyancing in Blaenavon your lawyer will request that you to provide them with monies to cover the search fees. This will be the total of the cost of the conveyancing searches. If any deposit is payable against the purchase price then this will be asked for immediately in advance of exchange of contracts. The closing balance that is needed should be transferred shortly before completion.
I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with Co-operative. I assume I don't need a Blaenavon conveyancer on the Co-operative panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?
If you have finished paying off your Co-operative mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Co-operative mortgage from the register. Co-operative, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where Co-operative has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Co-operative has instructed the Land Registry to do so
After months of negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Blaenavon. My mortgage broker recommended their conveyancers. I paid an upfront payment of £225. A couple of days later, the conveyancer called me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Yorkshire BS panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
Having read lots of house buying guides, I note that they all recommend that you should get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local Blaenavon solicitor - who is on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. Is that normal?
Yorkshire BS will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Yorkshire BS 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 Blaenavon 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.
I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £245,000 and found one close by in Blaenavon I like with open areas and railway links nearby, however it only has 52 years unexpired on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Blaenavon for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a short lease?
If you need a home loan the shortness of the lease may be a potential deal breaker. Discount the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current owner has owned the premises for at least 2 years you can ask them to start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer concerning this matter.
I have been recommended by numerous selling agents in Blaenavon to locate a solicitor on your site. Is there a financial advantage for Estate Agents to market your lawyers over and above a competitor’s?
We refuse to give any commission for sending work our way. We found it would be just too difficult a fee as home movers will think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I receiving any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.