Search
Call Us
Enquiry
Menu
Healys are delighted to announce that they have been shortlisted for the second time in two years to win “Mortgage Conveyancer of the Year” at The Mortgage Awards. Continue reading →
As part of its strategy to help JAMS (just about managing) people, the Chancellor has announced plans today in the Government’s Autumn Statement that landlords in England and Wales will be banned from charging letting agents’ fees to residential tenants. No date has been set for the onset of the legislation, but the government hopes this will be “as soon as possible”. There is already a ban in place in Scotland. Continue reading →
If you were unaware, the Government imposed Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) changes on anyone buying a second home. As of 1st April 2016, the SDLT rate on purchasing/investing in a second property has increased. For example, before 1st April 2016, if you were investing in a property with the value of over £250,001 you would have to pay an SDLT rate of 5%, after the 1st April 2016 the rate rises to 8%. To put this in perspective, the average house price in Brighton is £352,037, you would pay £17,851.85 before the 1st April 2016. Continue reading →
Shared ownership on the River Thames is now an option for a few Londoners – all of whom are likely to be first-time buyers – with the development of flats at an exclusive site on the Greenwich Peninsula.
The Platinum Riverside apartment block initially went on sale around two years ago and attracted buyers from destinations as far afield as China, Russia, UAE, Hong Kong and Singapore. Now, in line with housing rules, the developers, Bellway Homes, are now offering first-time buyers on incomes no greater than £50,000 the opportunity to buy into a shared ownership scheme.
The Conveyancing Association recently convened with lenders with the aim of looking at how it could expedite the property transaction process.
Those present discussed a number of the issues currently most pertinent to the residential conveyancing process. These included the impact of regulation, the difficulties of delays, and how to bring consistency and uniformity to the process.
“The event was extremely successful and we are making great progress. This is clearly something lenders are interested in engaging with us on and we are really looking forward to our continued work together as well as reaching out to other lenders who would like to be involved,” commented Eddie Goldsmith, chair of the Conveyancing Association.
Buy-to-let landlords face new challenges in the months ahead after the chancellor announced in his latest budget that he would be reducing tax relief for investors.
It was announced in the budget that from April 2017 landlords would be unable to receive tax relief worth up to 45% of interest payments on their buy-to-let mortgages, with the maximum relief to be capped at 20%.
The Conveyancing Association (CA) has begun a course of action that is designed to foster positive relations with the lender community in order to try and provide a smoother conveyancing process for both buyers and sellers.
The CA move comes in the wake of 2013’s Conveyancing Association Protocol, an initiative designed to provide impetus and guidance to try to ensure that conveyancers, regardless of whether they were representing buyers or sellers, were “singing from the same hymn sheet”. This document was followed by 2014’s Conveyancing Association Best Practice Guide for Conveyancers and Estate Agents.
The Society of Licensed Conveyancers (SLC) has called on residential conveyancing solicitors to boycott the conveyancing seminar being held in London by Metro Bank on 2 July.
Although it might at first seem harsh, the call has been issued because Metro Bank does not include licensed conveyancers on its panel, a strategy which has resulted in strong criticism from SLC and prompted the body to suggest it might refer Metro to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – it is understood that any decision hinges on the SLC’s receipt of legal advice regarding Metro Bank’s panel.
A boom in the number of buy-to-let conveyancing customers is a significant factor in the current major property shortage in the UK. Estate agents averaged just 52 properties per branch during May, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ most recent reports.
The figures mean that there are now fewer properties on the market than at any time in the past 37 years.
Unfortunately, for first-time buyers and those hoping to position themselves to gain a foothold in the UK property market, it is buy-to-let conveyancing customers who are creating the squeeze; the Council for Mortgage Lenders recently found that one in seven of all mortgages currently outstanding in the UK are for buy-to-let properties. Five years ago this figure was just one in nine.
Anyone in the UK who has ever had trouble finding an estate agent who makes them feel confident enough to proceed with a property sale, residential conveyancing solicitor instruction and all, will be interested to hear about a new estate agent comparison website.
The site, which is for people in England and Wales, allows vendors to compare estate agents in their area, wherever they live.
Although the site is only its early days, it aims to rate estate agents on a number of criteria, from success rate, the number of transactions handled to the average time it takes to sell a flat or house. These will be recorded and reported in a monthly performance index, which will be available to all users of the site.