If you want to buy a new home or property but don’t have enough cash, a mortgage can help. But early mortgages were different from the ones we know today.
The property itself secures a mortgage or property loan. This protects the lender or mortgagee from losses if the mortgagor or borrower does not pay the loan.
Mortgages were mentioned in England as early as 1190. However, the system then was more beneficial to creditors than to the people who needed the loan. Homebuyers in the early 1900s were required to make a 50% down payment, and the balance was paid within five years.
For instance, if the property were worth £200,000, the borrower would have to cough up £100,000 to get the loan and pay the remaining amount in five years. Hence, those who got a mortgage before already had a lot of money.
The terms and conditions of the loan are stated in the mortgage deed. This legal document contains details about the parties involved, the property, the loan amount, interest rate, and other important information. It also gives the lender legal rights over a property that serves as collateral.
To make it valid, the borrower must sign the mortgage deed and at least two witnesses. But before doing so, read the deed carefully to see if the mortgage terms are clearly stated, and you agree to them. Review the details to check if they are accurate. If you have any doubts or require clarification, don’t hesitate to ask.
Thanks to recent developments, a mortgage deed can now be signed electronically. This was first done in the UK in 2018. It requires inputting a unique code after reviewing the document. All that’s needed is an internet connection to access the deed anytime, anywhere.
Signing a deed electronically is a secure and convenient way of doing business that saves time and money and reduces paperwork. Once signed, the deed is stored electronically and can’t be lost or changed. In 2020 alone, over 1,000 mortgage deeds were electronically signed, and this trend is expected to grow in the coming years.
If you are too busy and need help reviewing your mortgage deed or need more information on electronic signatures, get in touch with the friendly lawyers of Deo Volente (DV) Solicitors in Bedford, UK. We offer personalized legal services and treat clients like family.
For details, visit dvsolicitors.com, call 01234 350 244, or email info@dvsolicitors.com.
Planning to sell your home? Looking for an interested buyer? It would help if you had a memorandum of sale to do this. This is the first step in selling your house or property.
A memorandum of sale is a written record of all the buyer's things to know about the property before it can be purchased. After the sale is agreed, this is made by the auctioneer or home buying company to keep things moving. This is usually emailed to the solicitors representing the buyer and the seller.
The more information the memorandum of sale has, the better for both parties. Some important details the document should contain include the following:
A memorandum of sale is not legally binding. Nor does it have to be signed. It is simply a written confirmation that the buyer and seller have agreed upon a price. This document should not be confused with a memorandum of understanding used in the United Kingdom (UK).
Because of this, the buyer can back out of the sale even with a memorandum of sale. But if everything is listed correctly, the buyer can push through with it, and things will proceed as planned. As long as both parties are honest and transparent, nothing can go wrong.
If you need assistance in reviewing your memorandum of sale, contact the professional lawyers of Deo Volente (DV) Solicitors in Bedford, UK. We offer personalized legal services for your specific needs. In our office, clients are treated like family.
For more information, visit dvsolicitors.com, call 01234 350 244, or email info@dvsolicitors.com.
Are You Seeking to Buy A New Home But Scared to Deal with the Potential Pitfalls During the Process?
Your home is your most valuable asset, and it is only right to make sure you get what you pay for.
There are many prospective hazards to be avoided when buying a home, and getting support from legal professionals to assist you through the journey not only makes a lot of sense but can save considerable amounts of money and unnecessary tension.
Realising the dream of your property ownership in the UK could be daunting. Unless conveyancing experts are engaged to negotiate you through the rollercoaster of contractual arrangements, it can most probably become a nightmare.
Buying a new home is undoubtedly an exciting time in your life. But before any of that, you need to understand the complexity of the buying process.
First, you’ll start to check numerous properties to purchase and will need to gauge the budget to see how much you can afford to pay from your savings and how much you can loan, considering legal and lender fees, stamp duty, and moving costs.
The next essential move is to decide on the type of property you want to go for: buying land and building a home or getting an existing home/home unit, or buying a plan. After these initial decisions, you can already begin on the next steps of buying a house.
Location is also a crucial factor. You might want a safe neighbourhood with easy access to commuter corridors, arterial roads, schools, and shopping centres, or you may prefer a more quiet area away from the bustling city- depends on your unique needs and preferences.
Next, the property itself should be worth what the seller is asking for. Its features, limitations, and price in comparison to similar properties are some factors to consider:
Does the seller have a contract of sale? The contract must be prepared before the seller can put their property for sale. Other legal documents, such as the contract, a cooling-off statement, and additional necessary details if the property in question is a strata property, should also be attached.
A copy of the contract of sale of the property you wish to buy must be given to the conveyancing solicitor. Once an offer has been made, you’ll need to hand over an initial deposit (in good faith) to the real estate agent.
You can begin the buying procedure by getting a loan on the property. Make sure you do not exchange contracts before the loan has been approved. Your lender will value the property to determine if it serves as adequate security for the loan amount.
Building and pest inspections are mandatory to confirm whether the structural foundation is secure. The plumbing and electrical wirings are in place, and the property is safe from insects, termites, or dangerous pests.
After your loan gets approved, your conveyancer will arrange for an exchange of contracts containing all terms and conditions of the sale.
You will need to pay the deposit as stated in the contract. The agent usually holds it.
Following the property’s purchase price, you will need to pay the stamp duty within three months of signing the contract.
In the period between the exchange of contracts and settlement, your conveyancer will make significant searches and enquiries and prepare documents. A settlement statement consisting of the details of the final amount owed is then forwarded to the seller.
On the day of the settlement, loan money is paid, the seller collects the deposit, your conveyancer receives a signed transfer and title of a deed, and you pay the duty on the contract. Once keys to the property are handed to you, you can immediately move into your dream property!
At Deo Volente, we aim to help you limit the risks involved in purchasing a property and deal with issues that arise from a pre-purchase inspection.
Buying and selling property is often one of the most important financial decisions many people will make in their lifetime. Our Best Conveyancing Solicitors in the UK will assist you every step of the way on your journey to owning your very own property.
We believe in delivering a uniquely supportive experience for our clients, giving them expert advice and excellent customer service, resulting in a smooth and successful real estate experience.
Seeking to buy a new home but worried about the nightmares along the lengthy process?
Reach out to us today and discover how our professional services can be of assistance to you.
After a rollercoaster of checking and inspections, you finally find your dream property. It’s close to the school your kids attend, comes with a pleasant neighbourhood, and fits within your budget.
Now here comes all the bunch of paperwork!
If you are a first-time buyer or property investor, we bet you might not have heard of ‘conveyancing’ before!
In fact, ‘unconditional, settlement, and ‘cooling-off period’ are important terms you may not be overly familiar with.
Whether you are buying or selling a property, the settlement process for conveyancing is a tedious procedure that includes several financial and administrative duties.
It is not a legal requirement, but for a reasonable cost, you can have a Conveyancing Solicitor act on your behalf, giving you more time to give more attention to moving with your family.
Transferring property to a new owner or entity involves various paperwork, and a conveyancing transaction typically consists of three stages:
A conveyancer looks after the whole settlement process, making sure the clients are prepared for critical timelines during the procedure.
As far as one can tell, conveyancing transactions might appear very straightforward. Still, in most cases, many home buyers and sellers do not fully realise the full amount of technicality, documentation, and work that goes into legally transferring a property to a new owner.
For first-time to seasoned property investors who haven’t had much experience navigating this area of law, it could take weeks (and sometimes months) to find and lodge legal documents, let alone understand them.
Buying a property is a daunting task. The overall transaction can involve a lot of time and money to coordinate, especially when setbacks and challenges emanate along the way.
Conveyancing requires enough effort and time to analyse, review, and finalise all the paperwork involved in the process. It usually incorporates transactions between you and vendors, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, building inspectors, banks, and government agencies.
For the most part, you’ll also be pressured to have a grasp of all the financial and legal documentation revolving around the process.
That is why it will be in your best interest to get a professional conveyancing solicitor in the UK rather than attempting to do it yourself.
Our team of friendly conveyancing solicitors in the UK will help you save hours of legal and paperwork. We liaise with building inspectors and real estate agents, take care of legal documents for government agencies and negotiate settlements with the seller, all on your behalf.
We also ensure you avoid any financial loss since the process’s complexity will have higher risks of costly and unwanted complications.
Leave everything to us while you focus on your moving. You never have to worry about legal documents or critical parts of transactions, as our friendly conveyancing solicitors will take care of the financial aspects, such as liaising with lenders and other entities in calculating settlement adjustments.
Thinking about buying or selling a property but worried about the series of paperwork?
Get in touch with us today to get a free assessment.
We will be with you from start to finish.
The Government announced new regulations that lifted the seven weeks freeze on property viewings and home moves. This has understandably left many people with the question – what effect post lockdown will have on the English property market?
Property website Zoopla previously estimated that about 373,000 property sales had been put on hold due to lockdown – with a total value of 82bn. As a result, there are many predictions that the UK property prices will fall dramatically but in comparison many people believe that we may infact see growth in the market. This is due to a combination of pent up demand and freely available mortgages at low rates.
Economists and housing experts are forecasting UK-wide price falls of up to 13%, which are predicted to be due to a number of factors such as; falling incomes and loss of jobs, lack of confidence and a general lack of transactions. In comparison, estate agent Savills has predicted the hit to the market to be more like 5% and a third of valuation surveyors predicting 4% or less.
However, the housing market commentator has said that it is particularly difficult to predict whether house prices will fall and by how much because the nature of the current crisis is different to previous downturns we’ve seen, being caused by global health, rather than economic circumstances.
The 2008 property crash is very much different from our current crisis and this is because the price crash was caused by tough restrictions on borrowing. This combined with higher interest rates meant that there was more negative equity and a greater number of repossessions – subsequently causing house prices to fall.
It is therefore hard to predict what exact effect post lockdown will have on the UK property market as we are in very much uncertain territory.
Whether the current market fall will be 13% or 4% due to the unprecedented times we are currently facing; the result of lockdown will more than likely have a profound effect on both our economy and the UK property market.
It should be mentioned, however, this could be good news for first time buyers and property investors as the post lockdown market is being described as a ‘buyer’s market’. Due to the uncertainty and lack of finances, sellers will be more than willing for a quick sale allowing first time buyers and investors the opportunity to take advantage of reduced sale prices.
At the moment the Bank of England base rate is the lowest it has ever been at 0.1%, so as long as lenders continue lending with low deposits at the current rates, then homeowners are more likely to be able to afford their housing costs and buyers can access money to buy.
If you have any queries regarding a property transaction please get in touch with a member of our Property Department on 01234 350244.
