Enquiries

Blotto17

I’m four months into the purchasing process. I am waiting on three separate enquires from the sellers solicitors. The first two seem reasonably doable. The third one sounds a bit tricky..

We are waiting on a response from the management company in relation to a Deed of Variation that my solicitor has requested as the original Transfer Deed does not exclude something which it should and my mortgage lender will require this.  

Apparently this may be problematic. Can anyone break this down for me? 

And if there is an issue does that mean if  the sale falls through because of it - will the next buyer face the same problem again? Or is it just people like me who are buying with the help of a mortgage. I’m frustrated to be coming across such issues so late into the process. 

 

artyboy

The issue you have is that, however motivated your own vendor (i.e. the leaseholder) might be to respond and help, a DoV is reliant on responses and agreement from the management company and ultimately the freeholder. Who may well be slow, disinterested, or downright against what you want.

Plus of course it's a longer communication chain, because your solicitor will be talking to the leaseholder's solicitor, who will then be talking to the management company, which may be talking to the freeholder.

So, as I found when I needed the same recently, it can be a slog to get it sorted out, and even to get feedback on whether everyone is happy to sort it out.

As for whether it will be an issue for any other mortgage lender... that depends on the issue itself, as different lenders have different requirements.

Flugelhorn

Is this a newish house on an estate  that you are buying? A great many have management charges on them and the developers / management companies put draconian penalties on people for not paying, ie could make your property leasehold.
Mortgage companies were not happy as this affected the value of the property so DoVs had to be done to ensure that mortgage companies had to be informed of this happening and given the option to pay the debt and hence protect their asset.
I know many people who have had that done when the properties were bought and sold - we asked for it to be done by the vendors in 2020 and it means it won't need to be redone when we sell.

Blotto17

So the house is freehold but it’s in an estate with other houses. Some of which are leasehold. There is an annual fee of around £100 for maintenance to be done within the estate. It is about 6 years old. It was newly built when it was bought by the current owners. 

I’m wondering how did the current owners solicitors and their mortgage provider miss this DoV issue? Is it just that my solicitor is more through? 

Flugelhorn

Blotto17 said:

So the house is freehold but it’s in an estate with other houses. Some of which are leasehold. There is an annual fee of around £100 for maintenance to be done within the estate. It is about 6 years old. It was newly built when it was bought by the current owners. 

I’m wondering how did the current owners solicitors and their mortgage provider miss this DoV issue? Is it just that my solicitor is more through? 

It was probably built on the cusp of when this became an issue - came up in early 2020 when we bought and some also for some people who bought a few months earlier. Certainly mortgage companies only started getting twitched at that stage