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

It’s crazy isn’t it @snowstorm2012?

I’ve never been happier that I took a support role (title checker). We’re all working ridiculous hours but at least I don’t have to deal with angry clients.

@MinnieMountain

It’s crazy isn’t it *@snowstorm2012*?

I’ve never been happier that I took a support role (title checker). We’re all working ridiculous hours but at least I don’t have to deal with angry clients.

It really is! Most are okay but some are so rude but hey ho! Hope you're okay.

Catch up later all, hope all of the transactions mentioned on here go through okay x

[quote MummytoGeorgie]@PiaC Hey, you are more than welcome :-) keeps my brain on the go amidst the baby nappies :-) haha

Legally, they are not allowed to encroach unless it's been done by Deed which is highly doubtful as you would have had to be party to that transfer. They can't just take part of the alley way!

You should speak to a solicitor who can write them a letter advising them of the legal position and they will need to remove the fence and put it on their boundary.

Some people are so cheeky it happens because they think they can get away with it.

You could try having a friendly chat with them first and explain it but if it goes sour, get a solicitor involved to write to them.

Hope you sort it xx[/quote]
Thank you so much!! really appreciate your response.

I will try to speak to neighbours first but suspect they will not be too happy :)

Is there any kind of statue of limitations i.e. they think just because they've had the fence there for a number of years they now somehow own that piece of land and we cant demand they move their fence. I would think not since the easement is granted via a specific deed but just wondered.

Have a lovely day :)

Hi OP thank you for this interesting thread.

Just a quick question we're thinking of buying our daughter's flat (unsaleable because of cladding) and renting it out.
We may give her some money before the sale to help pay the mortgage, this would then be part of the purchase price, so if the flat was sold for £200,0000, we gave her in advance 50,000, then bought the flat from her for 200,000 but only gave her 150,000 because of the advance of 50,000 would it be OK to put the sale through as 200,000? There would be no mortgage.

We have been told it's taking 20 weeks for house buying paperwork to get done but we are cash buyers without a house to sell. Is it really taking that long?

@Caroline147 Hi Caroline, thanks for your message and you are welcome :-) you aren't obliged to share the survey with the lender as they will carry out their own survey on the property whether that be in person or desktop valuation (from their PC) x

@CatAndHisKit Hey, you're welcome :-) so I would always recommend my clients to have them carried out. the local search is most important as it contains information on any works that have been undertaken at the property that may have required planning/building regulations ... on the property information form that the seller provides you at the outset this contains information on works that the seller discloses but I have come across quite often where the seller doesn't disclose anything but the local search results reveals works that the seller should have certificates for... clients do skip searches when they are cash and I do see this too, they don't necessarily regret it instantly but doesn't mean that they won't do when they come to sell the property as the buyer will 9/10 get the searches when you come to sell the property and may ask you for certificates that you didn't obtain because your solicitor wouldn't have known to request them because you didn't get the search. In the event that this happened you would have to provide indemnity insurance at your cost (up to £200 approx) to your buyer at the time of sale so just bear that in mind..

I'd say the local is the most important but it is also the longest to come back so if you do get the local you may as well get the rest because the local always comes back last... the water search also reveals any sewers pipes that run within the boundary and if there's any extension (rear) at the property you'd want to check that no pipes do run underneath it as then a build over agreement would have been needed from the water authority...

It really is down to you whether you obtain them, sometimes the local authority do an expedited search where the local comes back within 2 weeks or similar so you may want to check if that service is offered prior to declining.

Boundaries and rights of access are dealt with by the land registry title documents so not covered by the search.

I hope that helps xx

@snowstorm2012 ah I bet, I have many conveyancer friends and they are all saying the same! I know it's hard especially when clients can be really arsey :-( one month to go 💪🏼 good luck chick xx and thank you, take care xx

@flyingfreehold2021 you're welcome :-) take care xx

@PiaC not on registered land no it's very difficult. I hope you manage to sort it :-) have a good day too! Xx

[quote MummytoGeorgie]@Kitanora Hey! I replied to your private message, hope you got it ok as it disappeared when I clicked sent. Never done a PM before ha let me know if you didn't get it x[/quote]
Thank you! I have sent a quick reply!

@rosesarered321 hey, thanks for your question...

You'd buy the flat as £200,000 but gift the £50,000 so that's fine you'd just have to explain to your solicitor so that they could do the necessary paperwork :-) xx

@friedafried hey, solicitors are mad busy at the moment to get as many through as possible before the end of june when the stamp duty rules change but even so, I'd change your solicitors 20 weeks is ridiculous for a purchase with no mortgage!! 8-10 weeks max! Xx

Thank you

@MummytoGeorgie Thanks so much!

Thank you so much mummytogeorgie, so to clarify for the sale to go through as £200,000 we wouldn't need to make a payment of 200,000 as it would only be 150,000 at the point of sale?

@rosesarered321 yes that is correct, so the paperwork will say 200,000 but you're only actually giving 150,000. The difference of 50,000 will have to be classed as a gift so you won't actually be giving it. X

Thank you so much @MummytoGeorgie that's really helpful.

Hi @MummytoGeorgie thanks so much for answering questions.

Wonder if you can help me with this one? We are close to exchange after 7 months. Our buyers solicitor is asking for a copy of a building regs cert on a loft conversion carried out on our house at least 2 owners ago and 20+ years. We have no information on this and the council are listing the regs as passed. The solicitor wants a copy (which will take ages and probably cause the chain to collapse at this point) - is this really needed?

Thanks 🙏🏻

@Mumelie hi, thank you for your message. So sorry that you have been dealing with this transaction for seven months as it's an awfully long time. The fact that the loft was done 20 years ago you shouldn't have to provide any paperwork.

Section 36 of the building act 1994 advises that no enforcement action can be taken up to 12 months in relation to building regulations except that by the court for unsafe works, due to the fact that it has been in existence for 20+ years really shows me that it is safe.

Also if the council are aware of it I assume it's been revealed on the local search results… This means that the correct regulations were obtained at the time of the works and you just merely do not have the certificate. Your solicitor should know that it's ridiculous to ask for a certificate for works that are 20+ years old so the sellers solicitors are being very pedantic I would explain this to your solicitor and your estate agent and refuse to provide no further information on it. And seven months down the line? Where was this question months ago?

Hope you sort it xxx

@Mumelie They might come back and ask for an indemnity policy to be paid at your expense… If they do that then point blank refuse. The fact that the council are aware of the works means that it would invalidate any indemnity policy anyway. If the buyer feels that there is any risk and they should obtain an indemnity policy at their own expense but it wouldn't be worth the paper it's written on xx

@Mumelie 1984**

Thank you so much@MummytoGeorgie that's pretty much what I thought and my solicitor said. I've no idea why they are being so picky at this late stage especially when it was them who suggested completion next week.
I'll go back to my solicitor and reiterate we have no information nor will we be looking to provide any. Thanks again

@MummytoGeorgie

Hi need some advice please. We have finally heard back from the seller's solicitor's. They seller who previously, has informed us through the estate agents of the 15% flying freehold has now turned around and said they are not aware of any flying freehold!!! They want proof of such, which we have in the valuation. Both us and our solicitor are in shock with their response. Seller is denying any knowledge of this, and has said that when they bought the property, it wasn't mentioned in their survey. How can a part of property just become a part of another property without their knowledge? So, not sure where to go from here. We will send over our survey to the vendor's solicitors, but I'm sure, from the floor plan that the neighbours bedroom is on top of the property's office.

What can you suggest we do about this?

Many thanks!

[quote MummytoGeorgie]@Evecob The RX2 forms remove the restriction which the rent charge clearly is and this may be possible but it just depends on the terms of the transfer that the charges mentioned within. If it's for things like maintenance which you suggest that it is in relation to the road that it may need to be a DOV to cover this aspect!

Hope you're ok x[/quote]
Hi, me again ....

We haven't made any progress, the sellers solicitor says it isn't a DOV as the road isn't changing, and it isn't an RX2 as there there is no restriction on the house?? Yet he offers no solution, just says no?

Are you able to tell me if the sellers solicitor is in the wrong here? At the moment we seem to be at a stalemate, our solicitor wants the rent charge off our title, and our sellers solicitor doesn't see a problem... but how on earth do we move forward?

@MummytoGeorgie what a fab idea for you to start this thread! Just had an offer accepted so hopefully will be able to tap into your expertise soon :) thanks 😊

This is so lovely of you!

I have a question if you don't mind. We're in the process of buying a house that hasn't been sold for over 60 years. The deeds were lost and the house wasn't on the land registry. It's now registered but only with a possessory title (which I think is to be expected in the circumstances). There's been talk of an indemnity policy. My question is who organises this? And who pays for it? And is it sufficient to protect against any potential issues? Our solicitor is being rather vague and unresponsive and it's all new to me!

We don't have any doubt that the current owner has indeed lived there for the stated amount of time, so we don't foresee there being any issues. We also expect to be there for at least 12 years (when we can upgrade the title) although we can never be certain.

Thanks so much for your help!

@flyingfreehold2021 hello I hope that you are okay. I find it very surprising that the seller wouldn't know about the flying freehold as they should've been investigated when you purchased the property. When you send over the survey make sure you only send over the extract that they need and not the whole survey. It is very hard to advise on this particular situation because obviously I don't have a copy of the deeds but your solicitor should be able to see from looking at them what the situation is and what it should be. If the solicitors are disagreeing it might be worthwhile having a chat with the estate agents and jumping on a conference call with all parties x

@Evecob hi Eve, so if there is not any restriction on the house that means it isn't noted on the title deeds but it would be within the paperwork referred to within the title deeds but not actually registered on it. I was still saying the situation that data variation is the option to move forward as an RX2 would not be possible if it isn't registered on the title deeds. If your solicitor wants the rent charge off the title is this just his desire or something that your lender requires? obviously I would push for it to be removed within the deed of variation because it's in your best interest to do so and you could have problems if the lender agrees and you proceed with it as it is when you come to sell the property. Have you spoken to the estate agent about it? I think your solicitor needs to be firm with the sellers solicitors as a deed of variation is needed to remove it xx

@mofro no worries and good luck :-)) x

@BingoFucklinger hey if the seller had lived there for over 12 years I would most definitely get them to upgrade the title to title absolute prior to exchanging and completing. The land registry never make any guarantees and if something is not in good order then there may be a small possibility you will never get it upgraded which would be hugely detrimental to you. I'm also sure if you have a mortgage lender involved then they will require this.

When deeds are lost the sellers can provide an indemnity policy at their cost for the missing documentation. That being said the title deeds would contain rights granted to you, possible rights reserved to 3rd parties over the land, and also restrictive covenants (legally binding obligations) which you must adhere to. Obviously if the deeds are lost you are not going to know any of those specific clauses that are contained which is why you rely on an indemnity insurance. They could be a covenant for example that you're not allowed to develop the property and then if you go ahead and do so a third-party may contact you to take action against you for breaching the covenant so indemnity insurance is definitely needed.

Once the sellers solicitors have agreed that the seller will cover the cost of the indemnity policy it will be taken out by them on the completion date and sent to you shortly after by your solicitor.

I hope that the above is helpful if you have any other queries just let me know.

Have a great day all xxx

This is lovely of you! I have a boundary question if that's OK?

We bought a house last year, both our house and the one next door are unregistered, and both were bought new in the 70s. The boundary between our house and next door is a thick stone hedge, with a massive tree on it.

Our deeds show the hedge as a double line, with the boundary as a red line following the face of the hedge closest to us.

We have also seen next doors deeds, as it has been bought in the last couple of months and the buyers were told we owned the tree. Their house was built a few years before ours so the deeds don't use the same map. Their map is much less detailed and just shows a single line seperating the properties, with no reference to the tree or hedge.

Other neighbours have said the previous owners of both properties agreed that our property maintained the tree, as the layout means next door are not affected by it at all but it is very close to our house. Both previous owners are deceased so cannot confirm this arrangement.

Is there a standard procedure in cases like this? Is the red line showing the hedge isn't ours clear and unarguable? Or does the ambiguous red line on their map complicate it? Or is the hedge split down the middle and we have half each?

I suppose my concern is that if nextdoor or we sell it could cause problems if no one wants the responsibility of the tree!

This is a great thread, I've learned a lot!

We have just had the property information form and fixtures and fittings forms through.

The property we are buying has 3 external security cameras and also some razor wire threaded through the hedge at the front (makes it sound like we are buying a prison...!) These haven't been mentioned in the above form, can we ask the sellers to confirm they will be removing them? I assume they will be (the cameras at least).