Property solicitor

[MummytoGeorgie]

I'm on maternity and I miss my work!

I'm a property solicitor, if anyone has any questions I would be more than happy to give some free advice to do with conveyancing i.e moving home, enquiries, searches, title documentation etc (no landlord tenant as that's not my area of expertise).

TIA

Hi @MummytoGeorgie !

Thank you so much for this kind offer. Great to see you're helping so many people. If only you were still in work officially, I'd hire you in an instant 😅

I'm a first time buyer and am struggling with the concept that SO MANY things seem to happen simultaneously... but each can effectively affect a decision to proceed or not with a property.

Does everything need to take place at once - or is there a way for me to have things happen in steps where I just pay in smaller chunks so I'm not spending lots of money that might go to waste?

For example, my first stage is simply to get a mortgage officially.. but to get my broker to reach out to a bank I need a solicitor. Naturally, this has its own chance of failure; but then if the survey reveals issues, this in itself might also mean I withdraw. I am therefore nervous about spending money on intense legal fees, searches, a survey, and contract checking / querying all at the same time. Logically it feels like this should happen in stages, to minimise the risk of losing out on money - because if a survey looks terrible / a bank says they won't lend on a property, effectively things like searches don't even really matter.

Therefore - is it possible to just get a solicitor to do the very basic stuff to get the mortgage ball rolling? Then the bank can go check out the property / I can see if I can even borrow against it. Then if that goes well I can proceed to searches / contracts / querying etc.

I'm a first time buyer so might sound very silly but it just seems so confusing that so many things happen at the same time...!!

Thank you!!

@MummytoGeorgie you're amazing. No question - I just wanted to thank you. What a kind thing you're doing.

@areyouhavingagiraffe Hiya, hope you are okay. I don't know why they haven't responded they shouldn't give you radio silence because there really is no issue with them registering it on completion. As I said previously I would not recommend trying to register it prior yourself due to the extensive delays at the land registry, as long as they have the original or certified copy of the plan prior to exchange them this is completely sufficient. Xx

@AnnaDS78

Hi, hope you are well.

First of all you need to establish as to whether you hold the property as joint tenants or tenants in common. If you have a look at your title deed, under section B proprietorship register, there may be a clause that states: "“No disposition by a sole proprietor of the registered estate (except a trust corporation) under which capital money arises is to be registered unless authorised by an order of the court.”

If this clause is shown that means that you hold the property as tenants in common, if that clause is not there at all then you hold the property as joint tenants.

If you hold the property as joint tenants then that means that you both equally own the property and if one of you were to become deceased the property would automatically be passed to the surviving owner. If you hold the property as tenants in common then you can still hold the property 50-50, or in unequal shares, and if one of you was to become deceased your share wouldn't automatically pass to the survivor it would be established by your Will.

When you purchased the property if you put the deposit down entirely by yourself your solicitor should have recommended to you at the time to have a declaration of trust drawn up which would protect your deposit in the event that you were to sell you would get that deposit back entirely and then the rest would be split 50-50 or whatever shares were detailed on the deed. Sometimes this deed is be registered at the land registry in case it gets lost or it wasn't done.. there is no case proof of establishing the shares.

If the deed of declaration declaration of trust was to be registered at the land registry this would be noted on the title deeds so I'm assuming it isn't there.

The issues that you have are more contentious and not one that I specialise in so I would recommend, if you can prove that you put in the deposit entirely yourself, or if you have any evidence at all to suggest that this deposit was solely to come back to you, then to speak to a solicitor about taking the matter further with a view to issue court proceedings but if the sum is small it may cost you more in legal/court fees than if you didn't.

Xx

@sweetnessnlight

Hello! Thank you so much for your lovely comments...

I can completely understand it may seem very daunting the process that you're about to go through.

Once an offer is agreed it is the usual process to get a solicitor involved and get the mortgage well underway.

Sometimes when things have been revealed in a survey you need the searches in order to establish whether you need to take it further or not with the seller so it is a good idea to have all searches survey and contract queries answered so you can make a well informed decision.

When you instruct a solicitor your solicitor will have to wait until the sellers solicitors send him the contract pack so you may want to instruct your solicitor to not carry out any work until such time as your mortgage offer has been approved and the survey with the bank has been complete (to keep costs down).

You can sometimes try and find a solicitor that operates on a no move no fee basis but the quality of work and quickness of the work may be affected.

Good luck with your purchase xx

@savemefromsearches ah bless you!! Thank you so so much for your comment! Have a lovely weekend xx

Hi thank you so much for helping on legal matters.

Chain of 3, cash buyers above we are bottom using a small mortgage. Deposit transferred over a week ago, we were all “ready” waiting for top.

My solicitor attempted exchange on Thursday 16/5 was told by solicitor above “not to early next week but confirms completion 29 June” so I pestered my solicitor to start drawdown of funds. She didn’t want to buy reluctantly agreed, passed file
To her conveyancing assistant.

Spoke to conveyancing assistant Thursday at 4pm she said she would order funds “now”

Also we are in direct contact with all sellers in chain and we knew they would be ready to exchange Friday afternoon as one seller has a solicitor friend acting for her and we were only on waiting for her to be ready with one search result back then good to go.

So we told this to conveyancing assistant and she said she would then attempt exchange in morning (Friday 18/6)

Friday morning no exchange, but conveyancing assistant replies again don’t worry funds ordered so will happen Monday.

4pm Friday, seller above calls to say the chain is trying to exchange but our solicitor won’t “release”

We call conveyancing assistant and she says she is still awaiting confirmation from HSBC to Exchange. We ask her to call them and then attempt exchange again.

Then we hear nothing no update so spend weekend in misery. Sellers above all stressed thinking we have a problem
With our mortage.

So we call HSBC and they say the received a first CoT on Thursday and that’s being processed and funds will be sent day before completion and we just need to relax but all is fine. However they were slightly confused as there has been a second CoT sent on Friday and she doesn’t know why that’s on there.

So my question is, will exchange tomorrow? Is it as simple as our conveyancing assistant calling hsbc in morning confirming all ok and they will exchange or are we waiting now for some confirmation from HSBC?

So stressed and although it’s been great being in contact with sellers above, as we were not ones holding things up now it feels like we are the ones delaying everything.

Thanks in advance

Thanks @MummytoGeorgie. Hopefully we will hear something soon. Please could I pester you for some advice on my purchase. Two things really :

1. The drainage search shows that there is a public sewer running under the conservatory. The conservatory is less then 30sqm and (I understand) doesn't need planning / building regs. It has also been in situ since pre 2012 (I have old rightmove listings which show it in place in 2012). Current vendors haven't done any works to the conservatory and bought the property in 2015 with conservatory in place. Anyway, we are asking for a Build Over Agreement, and it is highly likely there isn't an Agreement. My Solicitor says we could opt for Indemnity in absence over Build Over Agreement. However, what I can't understand from the drainage search is that the pipes in question, don't connect to the foul mains (see attached screenshot), and I presume surface water discharge is via a soakaway. It is the surface water pipe which is under the conservatory for the property I am hoping to purchase. Search documentation confirms the property has a fouls connection. Does the map look odd to you? And did Build over Agreements come into force at a specific time and therefore would the conservatory have been exempt (especially if no Building Regs requirement)?
2. The property is a 3 bedroom house. It also has a loft room, advertised as "loft room". Vendors confirmed for storage only, and non-habitable. Mortgage valuation also based on 3 bedroom. The loft room has no planning permission, or Building Regs. It has a window, and a fixed staircase. Again, has been in situ since 2012. Does the fixed staircase trigger a requirement for Building Regs? I may be looking at getting consent for this to be counted as a bedroom in next few years so I am aware I may need to do works, but just wondered if fixed starircase triggers the Building Regs?

This is amazing of you! Especially now when everyone is going wild with property troubles.
I’ll keep my questions as short as I can.

Who is responsible for identifying the chain?

We were told from the start that our vendor is chain free, will move in with friends so very flexible.
Original exchange and completion set for end of May, got delayed...ok these things happen BUT...
we were all set to exchange and complete on Friday (18th). In our van, tenancy ended, and we get a call saying at 11am saying actually we’re in a chain of 4 and there are problems at the top.
This is the first time we’ve heard of a chain despite asking multiple times.

Our solicitor has been terrible all the way through - forgetting to request funds, uncommunicative, not telling us the response to enquiries...but is it his responsibility to formally enquire about chains?

We’re not living in a hotel for a week so safe to say out of pocket and stressed!

Thanks!

*now living in a hotel

@MummytoGeorgie

I had a mortgage in 2000 with northern Rock (100% first time buyers mortgage) sold in 2003 - area was very rough and needed to get out
Lived with family then rentals

Now I'm a situation to buy again owing to inheritance

Partner never had a mortgage

So after all this time has passed - would we as joint applicants be classed "as first time buyers" ?

@mina14325

That is terrible , just want to say how stressful that must be . We are just having to take a risk and break the chain on our sale and complete even though our purchase can not proceed . So rent for a while but at least I know why .

I'm in Scotland, so thing may be different. We are due to move on Friday, our solicitor advised us a few days ago that our buyers don't have their mortgage sorted yet. We have agreed just to check in every day this week for progress. What chances do you think we'll get to move? The house we are buying is empty so all good to go from that end. So frustrating that it's not sorted yet!

@Mummytopoppets

Hey,

How frustrating!!

Sounds to me like your solicitor either submitted an incorrect cot to the bank or the bank weren't happy with it and they had to resubmit it.

Some solicitors will not exchange until they get express confirmation from the lender that the funds will be released.

Did you get any further updates?x

Thanks you so so much. We have sent 3 emails to conveyancing assistant that submitted the COTs and copy to our actual solicitor but neither of them replied. We tried calling them from 5pm Friday but no one answered.

HSBC can’t work out why a second cot was submitted on Friday as they looked at first one and it’s perfectly fine all details match mortgage etc.

We need to exchange tomorrow so the chain above can book in removals only held until til 5pm tomorrow.

Can our solicitor/ conveyancing solicitor call hsbc and ask for verbal confirmation cot received and then go to exchange?

Is there anything we can do to speed up our solicitor to exchange tomorrow.

Really appreciate this help. We broke the chain 2 months ago living in a 2 bed flat with a 21 yr old, 4 yr old with complex health needs and a dog and it’s like living in a shoe box, out offer on house nearly 7 months ago and it’s been such a stressful time we just need this confirmation so we can stop holding our breath 😩

@areyouhavingagiraffe

Hello, hope you're ok.

If the stairs are fixed then building regs are required.

Regarding the extension, the map is fine it doesn't necessarily show the full extent of the sewers just the part in the vicinity of the property.

Private sewers and lateral drains that were connected to the public sewer before 1 July 2011 were transferred on 1 October 2011 to sewerage undertakers.

It is common to find extensions constructed less than 3 metres from a public sewer that was not a public sewer at the time the extension was constructed, but was instead a private sewer the responsibility of the homeowner.

If the conservatory was constructed prior to 1 July 2011, then it will have required express planning permission or permitted development rights, and it may have required building regulations approval.

It would not have required a build over agreement from the sewerage undertaker if the sewer was private only public would have.

Indemnity insurance is ok to rely upon if the agreement was required.

Xx

@mina14325 hey I hope that you're ok, I'm so sorry to hear this that is awful!

The agent should have made you aware of the chain at the outset, unfortunately I find it rather common where clients think they're chain free and they're not... it's so annoying!

They often tell you you're not in a chain to ensure that they secure the sale I've found xx

@omgthepain

Hi,

Hope you're ok!

You wouldn't be classed as a first time buyer as you've already had a mortgage before whether or not you lived there is irrelevant. X

@thinkningaboutit hello, I'm so sorry but I can't advise re Scotland as it's different law and one I don't specialise in :-( for example, here in England if the buyer hasn't yet got a mortgage you'd be weeks away from exchange x

Thank you so much for your reply!
There is a restriction in Section B of the deed- not quite the same wording as that but similar. I don't think we had a declaration of trust because, quite frankly, I was a dickhead (pardon my french) and thought he would be fair about it if things went tits up.... I know right?! 🙄🙄 I can however proof that my mum gave me the deposit money to put down on the property and I even have text from my ex confirming this. His point being that she gave it to " both of us" and I'm like " no mate, she gave it to ME! She would have given it to me regardless who I was with at the time!!". I'm actually quite peed off about the equity thing because I've paid so much more off it than he has and now he gets the same?!?! Doesn't seem fair!! I have been in contact with a solicitor and I have my free consultation in Tuesday because like you rightly said, it might not be worth pursing this case and I want to find out if it is or not before I go any further.
Thanks so much for your help, hope everything is going well with your new bubba 😊

Thanks @MummytoGeorgie, really useful. There are already stairs into the non-habitable loft room. Does this mean it does need BR, even though this was put in 10 yrs ago?

Thanks @MummytoGeorgie.
Hopefully we get in

@Mummytopoppets

Hey!

Your conveyancer can call them to verbally confirm but most will want it in writing.

I'd be calling the conveyancer every hour and get them to call HSBC ASAP to confirm!

Xx

@AnnaDS78 hi anna, thank you and sorry about all this. I hope your appointment goes well with your solicitor and you get the desired outcome!

Xxx