Solicitor Enquiry No answer

pokerj4y

Hi, 

Just looking for any advice.

I am trying to buy a house, offer was accepted and Mortgage offer received 1st July 2022. This offer is due to expire 1st November 2022. The house is 5 years old and the estate is managed by FirstPort. My solicitor oringally identified 7 enquiries, 6 are resolved. The final one is related to the management company FirstPort: “ Please confirm if the Fixed Rent Charge is not collected, or that it is included in the same collection as the Variable Rent Charge"

This has been outstanding for 10 weeks or so. Solicitors on both sides have been chasing, I have called property transfers, emailed to and even message employees of FirstPort on linkedin. Tried social media and customer services to and still we cannot get a clear answer to this question between us. The latest response is from the property manger who literally says "I dont know and I dont know how to find out", she referred us to another person who also said "I dont know"

So I've pushed my solicitor to move on without the response, I even suggested I sign a waiver to protect her if she wanted. 

She won't budge and says if we don't get a satisfactory response to the question then the mortgage offer will expire and you will need to go again.

I have spoken to my lender who currently has pulled all residential products and so there will no extension to the mortgage offer. This offer has an interest rate at 2.6% and currently the market is up to 6.5% and I'm not prepared to pay the extra as its so significant.

So ultimately, if I cannot complete before the 1st November I will lose the house.

My question is - can I force this through with my solicitor - is she being too stubborn with this question or should I expect her to be more flexible? Is there any other option I can explore alternatively?

I am running out of time.

Thanks

J

TripleH

Sadly if she is not happy, it won't proceed until she is. Your solicitor is also acting for the mortgage lender and their interest as well and has to factor how likely it is for them that they will recover their money.

We had a purchase where the solicitor wasn't happy with the lease despite us wanting to proceed. The deal collapsed which was good in the longer term as the freeholder appeared to have no intention on fixing the suspect term over ground rent increase in the lease despite promising to do so as soon as we'd exchanged.

pokerj4y

TripleH said:

Sadly if she is not happy, it won't proceed until she is. Your solicitor is also acting for the mortgage lender and their interest as well and has to factor how likely it is for them that they will recover their money.

We had a purchase where the solicitor wasn't happy with the lease despite us wanting to proceed. The deal collapsed which was good in the longer term as the freeholder appeared to have no intention on fixing the suspect term over ground rent increase in the lease despite promising to do so as soon as we'd exchanged.

Thanks for your reply - I guess I was hoping that this particular issue was trivial enough that the lender would have no real interest. It seems to me to be a very minor issue/low risk?

pokerj4y

TripleH said:

Sadly if she is not happy, it won't proceed until she is. Your solicitor is also acting for the mortgage lender and their interest as well and has to factor how likely it is for them that they will recover their money.

We had a purchase where the solicitor wasn't happy with the lease despite us wanting to proceed. The deal collapsed which was good in the longer term as the freeholder appeared to have no intention on fixing the suspect term over ground rent increase in the lease despite promising to do so as soon as we'd exchanged.

Thanks for your reply - I guess I was hoping that this particular issue was trivial enough that the lender would have no real interest. It seems to me to be a very minor issue/low risk?

TripleH

It's not trivial inthat if Ground Rent is unpaid, it's easier for a freeholder to get a leaseholder's lease forfeit than if service charges aren't paid. It sounds like you have a thorough solicitor.

silvercar

You could request your solicitor ask the lender if they are happy to proceed.

user1977

silvercar said:

You could request your solicitor ask the lender if they are happy to proceed.

Though I would expect the response to be "you're our solicitor, you advise us whether or not we ought to proceed".

Marky4040

pokerj4y said:

Hi, 

Just looking for any advice.

I am trying to buy a house, offer was accepted and Mortgage offer received 1st July 2022. This offer is due to expire 1st November 2022. The house is 5 years old and the estate is managed by FirstPort. My solicitor oringally identified 7 enquiries, 6 are resolved. The final one is related to the management company FirstPort: “ Please confirm if the Fixed Rent Charge is not collected, or that it is included in the same collection as the Variable Rent Charge"

This has been outstanding for 10 weeks or so. Solicitors on both sides have been chasing, I have called property transfers, emailed to and even message employees of FirstPort on linkedin. Tried social media and customer services to and still we cannot get a clear answer to this question between us. The latest response is from the property manger who literally says "I dont know and I dont know how to find out", she referred us to another person who also said "I dont know"

So I've pushed my solicitor to move on without the response, I even suggested I sign a waiver to protect her if she wanted. 

She won't budge and says if we don't get a satisfactory response to the question then the mortgage offer will expire and you will need to go again.

I have spoken to my lender who currently has pulled all residential products and so there will no extension to the mortgage offer. This offer has an interest rate at 2.6% and currently the market is up to 6.5% and I'm not prepared to pay the extra as its so significant.

So ultimately, if I cannot complete before the 1st November I will lose the house.

My question is - can I force this through with my solicitor - is she being too stubborn with this question or should I expect her to be more flexible? Is there any other option I can explore alternatively?

I am running out of time.

Thanks

J

Its likely the MC does not collect the ground rent which is why they can't answer the query. You need to find out who the freeholder is (land registry) and ask them about the ground rent clause. I had exactly the same issue with my purchase and the solicitor was not helpful until i did some digging myself. Additionally the lease pack your solicitor will have received from the sellers solicitor will say who collects the ground rent, so you may not have to contact the LR.  

My lender was not happy with the ground rent clause until the freeholder responded to my solicitor stating it would not raise beyond a specific level over a specific time period. Your solicitor has the lenders, lending criteria handbook which tells the solicitor what the resolution is to this issue as well, such as a Deed of variation or an indemnity policy against any issues around ground rent after purchase.