We are soon to complete on the purchase of a house in Cotham but as a consequence of damage from a small fire at the property I have was able negotiate reparation from the seller of £2k by way of a deduction in the price. I had intended this to be addressed as part of the conveyancing process but Virgin Money will not permit this. Should they have been notified?
The lawyer being on a Virgin Money conveyancing panel is obliged to advise Virgin Money of any changes to the sale price. If you were to refuse your solicitor to report the reduction to Virgin Money then they would have to discontinue acting for you. In addition, Virgin Money and you would have to appoint a new solicitor for your conveyancing in Cotham.
My grandmother passed away last year and as sole heir and executor I was left the house in Cotham. The house had a small mortgage remaining of approximately £4500. I want to transfer the title deeds into my name whilst I re-mortgage to Leeds Building Society, pay off the mortgage. Is this possible?
Given you plan to refinance then Leeds Building Society will require that you use a conveyancer on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the Leeds Building Society mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.
A colleague advised me that where I am buying in Cotham I should ask my conveyancer to execute a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?
A search of this type is sometimes quoted for as part of the standard Cotham conveyancing searches. It is a large report of about 40 pages, listing and setting out significant information about Cotham around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Cotham Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime statistics, Cotham Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data concerning Cotham.
Me and my brother purchased a 4 bedroom Victorian property in Cotham. Conveyancing lawyer acted for me and Platform Home Loans Ltd. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are a couple of entries: the first freehold, the second leasehold with the matching property. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?
You should review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Cotham and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with lenders. You can also question the situation with your conveyancing practitioner who conducted the conveyancing.
Having used your search tool I can't find the lawyer I was hoping to instruct as being on the lender conveyancing panel. My lawyer has said that they are on the lender approved panel. How can I be sure given that they are not listed on your directory?
Not all firms are yet listed on our lender panel search tool which is still relatively new. Law firms are listing on a daily basis and it is probably the case that your lawyer is on the bank conveyancing lawyer and you should probably take them at their word. Please do feel free to suggest that they completing their listing on our site as it would only cost them £1 a month to list themselves as being on the bank solicitor panel.