Help, please? Conveyancing costs & duties.

TheTipper

Hi

Apologies if this all seems naive - it's the first time I've sold a property, and I'm baffled by lack of logic in the process so far.

We've accepted an offer on our leasehold flat. We've filled in about 30 pages of queries from our conveyancing company, and sent them a copy of the lease agreement.

The buyer's solicitors have sent a list of 20-odd questions through to our conveyancers.

The buyer's questions have mainly been answered already in the questionaires we returned, those answers being found in the lease - which as I mentioned, they also have a copy of.

Our conveyancers say they have to get these answered by the Landlord. The Landlord wants to charge £245 to answer these questions, and our convayancers want to charge me that fee to get them answered.

My questions are:

1) Shouldn't these questions be answered by the buyer's solicitors checking the lease?

2) If not, shouldn't my conveyancers be answering the questions by checking the lease rather than just passing the buck to the Landlord?

3) If the buyer has questions, shouldn't they be paying the fees rather than me?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

T

hostman

Hi,

We recently sold and completed a ton of forms, inevitablely there was duplication. It was a bit annoying, but doesn't take too long to complete.

I don't understand why a landlord has to fill in forms. You're the owner, right? Who's landlord do they want to fill the forms in?

monkeys_bunny

unfortunatly its just the way it goes.

hardly any conveyancer will go thorough the lease and answer them you have to remember that they will have 100+ clients with 100+ leases and it saves you time in the long run to answer the questions about your own home yourself

also this is how it works i am afraid, and also how the managment company/landlord makes money.

you are selling, and im afraid if you want to sell then you have to pay up and get these things done.

it rubbish but its the way it is

Fire_Fox

It's normal to get certain questions confirmed by the managing agents or freeholder, for example are there any major works planned, is there a sinking fund, how much are service charges. It's normal for the vendor to pay the charges associated with this as it's you who has a 'relationship' with your landlord or their agent. You may find some useful info on buying or selling leasehold property here:
http://www.lease-advice.org/

Richard_Webster

Think about it as a buyer. If the seller says he thinks the position is such and such. He may or may not be right. The reality is the buyer wants to know what the landlord says. Seller may say there are no arrears of service charge - landlord says there are.

Fat lot of help to buyer after completion when he finds landlord is on his back wanting the arrears!

So there will inevitably be questions that a buyer will want the landlord or his managing agent to answer.

Sometimes the landlord may technically be in the wrong. For instance the lease may contain prohibitions on alterations. The wording of these can vary. A seller's solicitor may quite reasonably conclude from the particular wording of a lease that putting in double glazing doesn't require consent. A buyer's solicitor may not be so sure. If the landlord says it does and he wants £250 to consider whether to give a consent for double glazing that is already there the seller is stuck. He can argue all he wants about the correct interpretation of the lease but no party to conveyancing transaction is going to break off the conveyancing while they apply to the courts (a few months and a few thousand pounds) for a declaration as to the meaning of the alterations covenant! Buyer's solicitor will say that he doesn't care what the legal position is, if the landlord says a consent is necessary he wants to see that consent, because he doesn't want his client having the bother and expense in the future.

So please understand why a buyer's solicitor will want the landlord or his managing agent to answer the questions, because in practice it is the landlord or managing agent's answers that really matter..