Mortgage approvals for house purchase rose to 52,982 in October, the Bank of England has said.
The figure was an improvement on September’s figure of 50,415 and was the highest since January. However, it was still only about half of the monthly average of 103,000 in the decade to 2007.
We are still bumping along the bottom of the property market but things are increasingly gradually and to be honest that is best for everyone concerned.
If numbers spiked the whole industry wouldn’t know whether to recruit staff or try and ride out the storm. We are in new territory in terms of generic viagra predicting how the market will behave so a gradual increase is best tor all concerned.
Matt

It has been reported by the Council of Mortgage Lenders that for the fifth month in a row the mortgage lending year on year has gone up.

It has also been reported that the average house price has increased,  Halifax have reported that UK house prices increased by 0.6% in January 2012. Halifax state that the average house price last

month was £160,907.

What a good start to the year. Roll on 2012.

If you do decide that buy or sell your please contact us for a fixed price conveyancing quote.

Christie Limb

Partner

I was listening to Radio 5 live this morning and the phone in was comparing the public sector and private sector.
One of the points made was that if the public sector was run like a private business then we would have an efficient and healthier economy.

That debate is beyond this blog.

However I did have our local authority phone me last week asking for our search business and promising a great delivery time which would be delivered electronically.

Hats off to them for making approaches to local businesses and trying to win work.

However back in 2007 we moved to a web ordering platform where we could order all our searches (as oppose to just a local search) at a more cost effective price

Translated: the private sector had already come up with a better solution 5 years ago. Furthermore the private sector offered us a national solution which the public sector has not been able to.

thanks

Matt

For a conveyancing quote please click here

The sale of a business constitutes a supply for the purposes of the Value Added Taxes Act 1994. VAT is therefore payable on the whole of the payment made on the sale/purchase of a business. However under article 5 of the Value Added Tax (Special Provisions) Order 1995 (SI 1995/1268) VAT is not payable if the transaction is considered to be a transfer of a going concern.

To be a transfer of a going concern that the following must be satisfied:-

The seller is registered for VAT and the buyer is also registered;

The business is a going concern

The assets continue to be used for the same kind of business

If only part of the assets of the business are sold, the assets are capable of independent operation.

The Special Provision Order generally means that VAT in most cases is not payable on the purchase of a business as a going concern.

If you are buying the property at the same time as the purchase of the business you will need to establish whether or not VAT is chargeable on the transaction. If the building is more than 3 years old, usually the property will be exempt from VAT provided that the seller has not opted to tax the property.

If the seller has opted to tax then the buyer must register for VAT and must opt to tax at the relevant date, the definition of relevant date is quite confusing but generally it is the date when money first passes hands like the payment of the deposit.

VAT is a complex area and therefore we suggest that if you are considering buying a business or in the process of buying one that you instruct solicitors. Our Christie Limb would be more than happy to assist you, please feel free to send an email to climb@fidler.co.uk.

Christie Limb

Partner

Recent statistics would suggest that older couples and individuals are under-utilising their larger properties and it is estimated that there are 25 million unused bedrooms in England with 37% of homes are under occupied.

It would seem therefore that older people are holding on to properties that are greater than their physical needs. It has been suggested that older people be offered stamp duty free downward move coupled with penalty council taxes for under occupation to encourage larger properties to be put on the market. Whether such a scheme is adopted remains to be seen however.

Whether this suggestion is realistic or not, it does touch upon the issue that quite often older people find themselves in a home which they have raised a family in and are quite comfortable living in. Why should they want to move?

Quite often it is because they have to release equity from the property to fund their older age and cope with the every increasing cost of living. One way to do this is through an equity release scheme. This is a scheme whereby a lender loans money to an individual, which is secured against the property. They charge interest on this amount but it generally only becomes payable upon the death of the borrower. We are certainly seeing more of these schemes coming through the Fidler & Pepper doors.

If you are considering such a scheme or have been approached and want to speak to a solicitor regarding specific aspects of the scheme or are considering selling your property and want advice in relation to this then please drop me a line to discuss this further on either wjames@fidler.co.uk or 01623451111.  

We have to do a local authority search in every property purchase in UK and Wales.
The exception is where the client is purchasing for cash and can elect to not have this search carried out. In this case they buy the property subject to anything that would have been revealed in the search.
The search is a list of questions asked of various departments of the Council such as planning, building control or roads.
Those departments may be housed in different parts of the building or different buildings.
A local search can be carried out by the Council or by a personal search company who employs a person to visit the council to access the information or accesses the information electronically via the Council’s databases.
The local search will only reveal results that affect the land or property you are buying and not the local vicinty. In this way the name “local” search can be misleading.
We will advise you of any issues in relation to the property and as necessary will offer solutions or carry out further investigations where appropriate.
Any questions please fee free to email me at msslade@fidler.co.uk.
To see the prices of the searches and the conveyancing  please click here.

Matt

According to the BBC website between April-June 2011 in Ashfield the average house prices rose 5.8% and in Mansfield they rose by 3.7%.

This is great news for the local housing market.

If you are planning on buying or selling a property please click on the hyper link for a  conveyancing quote as we would be happy to assist you with your conveyancing transaction.

Christie Limb

Partner

Over the last year or so I have noticed a steady rise with clients purchasing properties at Auction and there certainly seems to be some bargains out there.

It occurs to me however that not everyone will know much about this method of buying property so I have set out a brief guide for the uninitiated.

At auction you place a bid on a property you wish to buy. If this is accepted by the auctioneer then you enter into a legal agreement to buy the property. Typically at the end of the auction you will exchange contracts and set a date whereby you are due to complete. This is usually 21 days from the day of the auction. In addition you will be liable for a deposit of 10% of the purchase price and will have to pay this on the day.

The important thing to remember is that once you are successful you are committed to the purchase and therefore you should consider the following:

1.      Finances – consider whether you can (1) afford the deposit (2) balance of purchase price (3) any legal fees. Are you buying with a mortgage? If so it is a good idea to have this in place before the date of the auction.

2.      Have you visited the property? Have you carried out a survey? Under the terms of the auction contact you will purchase the property on a sold as seen basis and there will be no come back if you subsequently discover something that you should have investigated beforehand.

3.      Have you obtained legal advice? As a solicitor it will not surprise you to discover that I would recommend taking legal advice but this is perhaps the most important aspect to consider. Just because the property is at auction does not guarantee that there are no legal problems with it.

4.      If you are considering buying at auction contact the auction house and express your interest in the property. They will then be able to send you a copy of the legal pack which you can then pass to your solicitor.  

If you are considering purchasing a property at auction or have any questions relating to buying property at auction please give me a call on 01623 451111 or email me on wjames@fidler.co.uk

I met an estate agent friend last week – I’ve not seen him for about a year. It was nice to catch up and se how things are going – he’s about 20 miles away from us. Things are going Ok for him, and gradually improving. As we got talking it through it seems that the number of properties being sold are up about 30-45% on the same time last year – a substantial increase in the volume of jobs going through. I thought this was brilliant news – a good sign that things are on the up.

I know he’s red hot on sending out press releases to the local media so I asked what he’d made of this good news. He said he can’t get a story like that into the media because it doesn’t fit with the prevailing view that things are dire and not likely to improve. Our own figures back up what he as saying – the number of jobs passing through is about 36% up on the year to date in 2010. It seems utterly amazing to me that real genuine property news from people at the sharp end won’t be put in the media because it doesn’t coincide with the popular story. Yet on the other hand doom-mongers predicting the end of the world get more column inches than you can shake a stick at.

If the Murdoch/phone hacking story leads to any change in newspaper reporting in the UK, lets hope it leads to a bit of good news for a change. There’s plenty out there but to open a newspaper you wouldn’t believe it. I won’t hold my breath though.

Oh and one more thing – I’m talking about a rise in number of transactions – not house prices. But it’s the number of transactions that’s actually more important to the economy – every time someone moves this results in a flurry of new carpets, curtains, DIY, electrical and plumbing work.

If you are one of those people looking to move house and you want an instant conveyancing quote then give us a chance to pitch for your work

Cheers

Mark

As a brief introduction, I’m Matt Slade – head of the conveyancing department. I’ve blogged in other parts of the the site but this is my first on the fidler blog.

We often get asked whether it matters if you use a local solicitor or one in another part of the country. I sit both sides of this fence so will try and provide a balanced view rather than push one point of view.

However some clients prefer to come into office for a host of reasons eg they prefer listening to someone rather than reading a report.

If a client wants to come into the office then we’d normally only ask them to come in in relation to their purchase (we don’t normally ask clients to come in at all on a sale only) and then it would be to go through contracts and documents on the purchase. They get to meet us face to face and ask questions that may have been on their mind.

If they choose not to come in then we prepare a written report  on the property that someone is planning to buy – a lot of people prefer this because they can read it at their leisure and they’ve got it in black and white what we’ve said – sometimes after leaving our office they might not remember everything they were told. Also meeting a solicitor can be overwhelming so sometimes it is better to settle down with a cup of tea and have a good read of the documents in your home without time pressure. If you are unsure then you can talk to person who drafted the report by email/phone. Another argument in favour of the remote idea is that that time off work is for holidays and spending time with the family rather than visiting stuffy solicitors (we aren’t stuffy).

Personally I prefer to listen but my wife prefers to read so she reads the stuff out to me and we are both happy!

It boils down to the service you want to experience and  the premium you put on your time.

Cheers,

Matt