charge order ! help

alchemist.1

pilavas wrote: »

I think my solicitor is being to over cautious.
My main fear is I get lumbered with the charge order since she said If they fail to pay it, it then becomes my debt which will be bad.

Also since the seller's solicitor took a long time to respond to our queries we are weary that he may not agree to show evidence that the charge order has been paid or not ad refusing a conditional excchange.

You cant have it both ways.

moneyistooshorttomention

davidmcn wrote: »

Not sure I understand the problem - the seller's solicitor has said they'll provide an undertaking at completion. You're not at completion yet, so what is it you're looking for?

It sounds like this formal undertaking would just be a proper letter from vendors solicitor appropriately phrased to say "We are responsible. Buck stops here" in legal language.

That is hardly unreasonable of OP or their solicitor to expect that. I would have thought that undertaking had to happen before Exchange.

The LAND REGISTRY rep. might know more about this?

davidmcn

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

It sounds like this formal undertaking would just be a proper letter from vendors solicitor appropriately phrased to say "We are responsible. Buck stops here" in legal language.

That is hardly unreasonable of OP or their solicitor to expect that. I would have thought that undertaking had to happen before Exchange.

No, it happens at completion, because that's when the buyer's money is at risk. Depending on timing, exchange may be too early for such an undertaking to be provided.

From a practical point of view the vendor will of course want to check that they'll have enough money to pay off all charges, so if there are "surprising" ones like this (as opposed to normal mortgages) then there's likely to be a query that it's been taken account of.

silvercar

In the same way that seller's solicitor is responsible for clearing the mortgage that the seller had on the property, the seller's solicitor also has to clear all other charges. This is to ensure the property passes with clear title to the buyer. This will be necessary for the buyer's mortgage to be first charge on the property and of course for the buyer not to acquire the debts of the previous owner.

Land_Registry

Undertakings of this type are commonplace although where they come in the conveyancing order of things I am unaware as we tend to only see the end result and not what assurances etc were given re such matters on the conveyancing journey. However davidmcn and silvercar posts clarify that point

The OP should be aware that if the CO is noted on the title then if we don't receive an application to cancel/withdraw it then it would simply remain registered until we do. If the seller's solicitor is providing an undertaking to remove it then how much it is for is presumably irrelevant as the undertaking is not £ specific

As others have mentioned though if there's a new mortgage in play then they are not going to be lending unless they too are satisfied as to doing so against a clear title

HouseBuyer77

Surely having a clear title will be part of the contract? So if you exchange with the charge in place and they fail to clear it they fail to complete?

It sounds like what's being proposed by the vendor's solicitor is a solicitor's undertaking to clear it will be given on completion. Perhaps it can't be cleared until after completion because they need the sale money in the first place to pay off whoever they owe money to who will then allow the charge to be cleared.

Receiving the undertaking as part of completion means it's going to get cleared (vendor's solicitor will have sale money and they will send £2k direct to whoever is owed the money). Pre-completion it's a contractual obligation it gets done.

So overall sounds reasonable. Though if your solicitor is kicking up a fuss maybe something I've missed (after all they're the legal professional)?

Kyresa

There is a Form - TA13 that is sent from the seller's to the buyer's solicitors prior to completion of the transaction.

On that form there is a box where the solicitor lists all the charges they will pay off upon completion. They then sign the form as an undertaking.

pilavas

Thanks for all your help everyone, Seller's solicitor emailed saying the seller no longer wants to sell the property.

There are people out there who still love wasting people's time.