It is a dozen years since I bought my house in Great Stanmore. Conveyancing lawyers have recently been instructed on the sale but I am unable to locate the title documents. Is this a major issue?

You need not be too concerned. First the deeds may be kept by the lender or they may be archived with the solicitor who oversaw your purchase. Secondly the likelihood is that the property will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you own the property by your conveyancing solicitors procuring up to date copy of the land registers. The vast majority of conveyancing in Great Stanmore involves registered property but in the unlikely event that your property is not registered it adds to the complexity but is not insurmountable.

The Great Stanmore conveyancing lawyers that I recently instructed on my house acquisition in Great Stanmore have suddenly shut down. I only went with them because I needed a lawyer on the conveyancing panel and my previous Great Stanmore lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take one hundred and fifty pounds for searches. What do I do now?

Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers should be in a position to help.

Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up as part of conveyancing in Great Stanmore?

Covenants that are restrictive in nature can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in Great Stanmore. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’

How does conveyancing in Great Stanmore differ for new build properties?

Most buyers of new build residence in Great Stanmore come to us having been asked by the builder to exchange contracts and commit to the purchase even before the property is constructed. This is because builders in Great Stanmore usually acquire the real estate, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct property lawyers as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are used to new build conveyancing in Great Stanmore or who has acted in the same development.

There are only Sixty One years remaining on my lease in Great Stanmore. I need to extend my lease but my landlord is absent. What are my options?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be extended by the Court. However, you will be required to prove that you have done all that could be expected to locate the freeholder. For most situations a specialist would be useful to conduct investigations and to produce an expert document to be accepted by the court as evidence that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Great Stanmore.

Great Stanmore Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries Prior to Purchasing

How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their maintenance charge payments? Are there any major works on the horizon that could add a premium to the maintenance costs? For most Great Stanmore leaseholds the cost for major works tend not to be included within service charges, albeit that some managing agents in Great Stanmore require leaseholders to pay into a reserve fund and this is used to offset against major repairs or maintenance.