Maria Young

We recently acted for the purchaser of a flat in Birmingham.  He was a first time buyer who was interested in buying a flat at auctioon and was having a problem in arranging a mortgage.  He was not prepared to bid unless the mortgage funding was in place.  The auction was due to take place less than two weeks later time so required our assistance.

Due to our contacts with local mortgage lenders we were able to advise the client that a national bank based in Banbury was prepared to lend to first time buyers at favourable rates.  We arranged for their mortgage consultant to ring the client and they were able to offer him a mortgage, subject only to a valuation of the flat that was quickly organised.

The client sent the Auction Pack less than three days before the auction.  It ran to over 120 pages and careful consideration of it revealed two major problems with the flat – namely that the landlord had recently gone into liquidation, and there were extensive arrears of service charges.

Telephone calls to the liquidator confirmed that the freehold interest was about to be transferred to the management company, run by all of the tenants in the building and which was still trading.  Once the transfer was completed they would assume the former landlord’s responsibilities under the lease.  Further telephone calls to the seller’s solicitor resulted in an undertaking that the arrears of service charges would be paid from the sale proceeds.

Having resolved both problems we were able to reassure the client that he could safely bid for the flat he hoped to purchase.  

His bid was successful and he is now the proud owner of his first property.

We were instructed by clients who we had acted for many times previously.

Initially their chances of purchasing the new property were slim, as they had not sold their own property and there were other interested purchasers for their purchase.

We advised them to be realistic about the price that they hoped to get for their existing property.  They took our advice, instructed estate agents and sold their property very quickly.  Their offer on their new house was accepted.

That was not the end of the story as the executors acting in the sale to them were also transferring part of the deceased’s property to a Housing Association in accordance with a provision of the deceased’s Will.  The contract documentation was complicated because of the inter-relationship of the rights and obligations in respect of the property and that they were selling to her clients, and the Housing Association respectively, as well as some further land that they were retaining.  

Extensive use of email, and scanned documentation, between all three solicitors, meant that the drafting and settling of the contract and transfer documents were agreed quickly.  Our clients’ work commitments meant that they could not travel to Banbury to see us, but again extensive use of email and direct dial facilities meant that we were still able to progress their transactions promptly.

Our efforts ensured that our clients bought their dream home – much to their delight.  The executors were so pleased with the way that the sale had progressed that they granted our clients an option to a purchase a coppice on the land that they had retained – an option that they have recently exercised.