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Shared ownership, being charged legal fees by HA
zappomatic
Posts: 616 Forumite
I'm the process of buying a shared ownership property under New Build HomeBuy. Obviously we have to pay our own solicitor, mortgage fees, stamp duty etc.
From the start the housing association (AmicusHorizon) has made clear that we should instruct our solicitor not to carry out a local authority search as their solicitors would be doing that, and that we'd have to contribute towards that. Fair enough. But having now received a copy of the lease agreement, not only are they saying we have to pay towards the local authority search, but that we also have to pay their solicitors £75+VAT towards the cost of the counterpart lease, and also must pay them £40+VAT for approval of our mortgage.
Nowhere in the literature or offer letter from the housing association does it say we would be liable for this charge. Is this standard practice, and are they allowed to do this?
From the start the housing association (AmicusHorizon) has made clear that we should instruct our solicitor not to carry out a local authority search as their solicitors would be doing that, and that we'd have to contribute towards that. Fair enough. But having now received a copy of the lease agreement, not only are they saying we have to pay towards the local authority search, but that we also have to pay their solicitors £75+VAT towards the cost of the counterpart lease, and also must pay them £40+VAT for approval of our mortgage.
Nowhere in the literature or offer letter from the housing association does it say we would be liable for this charge. Is this standard practice, and are they allowed to do this?
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Comments
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These charges are pretty typical. The document fee is more or less standard when new builds or new leases are concerned with any solicitor acting for a Builder/Council/Housing Assn.
The approval of mortgage fee is a new one on me, but I am not surprised by it because with a shared ownership situation your mortgage does have to be approved by the Hsg Assn. Actually though it may not be for approval of the mortgage but for registering a notice of it after completion which is also a standard kind of charge that is made in lease wording for any flat.
The amounts of these charges will vary but the figures you mention are fairly typical. It is irritating not to be told about this. When people phone for estimates to buy a new flat I usually point out that they will probably get charged these kinds of amounts by the seller's solicitor.RICHARD WEBSTER
As a retired conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful assuming any properties concerned are in England/Wales but I accept no liability for it.0 -
Guys,
Perhaps you can help me, my wife and I and 2 kids are thinking of going for one of these new build shared ownership homes, it's under a thing called HomeStart which is basically new builds to help with first time buyers or those already on the ladder help to step up, however we already have a 3 bed mid terrace ex LA house but would like the attraction fo the new build.
We still have to go through the application process and may not even get through that, our house would probably sell for 80k new houses are valued about 125k and you only buy 80% at moment with the possible option to buy the other 20% at a later date.
Also is the mortgage for it through the HA running the build or is it just a normal run of the mill mortgage?
Cheers and much appreciated if you can help.Thanks to all the competition posters.0 -
Thank you, Richard. Looks like we'll just have to take that charge on the chin. Peanuts in the grand scheme of things I suppose, but less to spend on furniture!0
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im doing the same thing but its called open buy. and the housin association want £7000 off me for the benefit of being with them in joint partnership plus all the legal fees and stamp duty. in total £18000. beat that! lolYou're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on0
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im doing the same thing but its called open buy. and the housin association want £7000 off me for the benefit of being with them in joint partnership plus all the legal fees and stamp duty. in total £18000. beat that! lol
Yikes... sometimes it's quite clear which foot the boot is on!0 -
ooh yeah HA have you by the short and curly if you have no other option like myselfzappomatic wrote: »Yikes... sometimes it's quite clear which foot the boot is on!You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on0
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