My fiancee and I are buying our first home. Our property lawyer has contact usto enquire if we wish to purchase extra conveyancing searches. Frankly we have no idea as to what's appropriate for conveyancing in Wilmslow
The extent of Wilmslow conveyancing searches depends primarily on the premises, the location, the likelihood of any of these risks, your knowledge of the region and risks, your general attitude to risk. What matters is that you adequately understand what information the searches could provide. You may then decide if you consider that you need that search. Should you be unsure, ask the solicitor to guide you.
What does my ID and proof of funds have anything to do with my conveyancing in Wilmslow? Why is this being asked of me?
You are right in these requests have nothing to do with conveyancing in Wilmslow. However these days you will not be able to proceed with any conveyancing deal without first handing over proof of your identity. Ordinarily this takes the form of a either your passport or driving licence and a council tax bill. Please note that if you are providing your driving licence as proof of ID it needs to be both the paper section and photo card part, one is not satisfactory without the other.
Proof of your source of funds is required in accordance with the Money Laundering Regulations. You should not be offended when when this is requested of you as your conveyancing solicitor must retain this information on file. Your Wilmslow conveyancing lawyer will require evidence of proof of funds before they are able to accept any monies from you into their client account and they may also ask additional queries concerning the source of monies.
My friend advised me that where I am buying in Wilmslow I should ask my conveyancer to carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is occasionally quoted for as part of the standard Wilmslow conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of about 40 pages, listing and setting out significant information about Wilmslow around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Wilmslow Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Local Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information about Wilmslow.
I opted to have a survey carried out on a house in Wilmslow in advance of instructing solicitors. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold element to the property. My surveyor advised that some mortgage companies tend not grant a mortgage on such a house.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Bank of Scotland has different instructions from Halifax. Should you wish to call us we can look into this further with the relevant mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Wilmslow. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Wilmslow to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.
We are midway through buying a house in Wilmslow. Conveyancing lawyer has told us the property is "Leasehold". Will this likely make a difference on the salability of the property?
Wilmslow conveyancing does not ordinarily involve leasehold houses. The main factor here is the length of lease and the ground rent. If it's 999 years with a nominal rent, it's virtually freehold, so it’s unlikely to affect the saleability too much.
On the flip side, if it's, say, 50 years it will have a material effect on the value, and most likely wouldn't be acceptable to the bank. The length of lease and ground rent will be specified in the lease which should be made available to your lawyer.