What is the first thing I need to know regarding purchase conveyancing in East Preston?

You may not hear this from too many lawyers but conveyancing in East Preston and elsewhere in West Sussex is often a confrontational process. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there exists lots of room for conflict between you and other parties involved in the home moving process. E.g., the seller, estate agent and on occasion your bank. Appointing a solicitor for your conveyancing in East Preston should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONLY person in the process whose role it is to protect your legal interests and to keep you safe.

We are witnessing a definite 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 conveyancer ahead of the other players when it comes to the legal assignment of property.

The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build flat in East Preston. Conveyancing is daunting 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 conveyancing.

Set out below is a sample of a selection of leasehold new build questions that you should expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in East Preston

There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. Please supply a car parking plan. The Vendor must covenant to keep unoccupied units in good repair until long leases are granted therefore. Where service of notices and proceedings can be at the property demised please confirm that this can be amended to include simultaneous services at the Lessees’ solicitors’ offices where the Lessee from time to time is not resident in the UK - such solicitors may be varied by notice in writing to the Landlord from time to time but otherwise will be as previously specified.

I have been on the look out for a flat up to £195,000 and identified one near me in East Preston I like with a park and station in the vicinity, however it only has 52 years unexpired on the lease. I can't really find anything else in East Preston for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?

If you require a mortgage the shortness of the lease may be a potential deal breaker. Discount the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing proprietor has owned the premises for at least 2 years you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor concerning this.

How easy is it to use the search facility to choose a conveyancing lawyer in East Preston on the authorised to act for my lender?

Step one is to pick a lender such as HSBC Bank, Chelsea Building Society or Platform Home Loans Ltd then choose your preferred area e.g. East Preston. Conveyancing organisations in East Preston and further afield will then be shown.

Our conveyancer in East Preston has discovered a defect with the lease for the apartment we are purchasing in East Preston. The seller’s lawyers have suggested defective title insurance as a solution. We are happy with insurance and will cover the costs. Our lawyer has advised that as he is on the bank conveyancing panel he must ensure 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 lender are the client. A precondition to being on the lender 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.