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Navigating the Paperwork of Buying a UK Home · Merryn Talks Money

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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to Meron Talks Your Money, the personal finance edition
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  Speaker 2: of Merin Talks Money. In these bonus podcasts, we talk
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  Speaker 2: about the best strategies for making the most out of
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  Speaker 2: your money. I'm Merin Sumset Web and with me today
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  Speaker 2: as ever is senior reporter and author of the Money
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  Speaker 2: Distilled newsletter, John Stevig. Hi, John, Hi'm okay. So we
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  Speaker 2: are carrying on with our housing mini series. Our listeners
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  Speaker 2: by now are so expert on this whole thing. But
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  Speaker 2: there is one thing that we haven't talked about yet,
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  Speaker 2: and yes, it's the ADMIN. And if there's one thing
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  Speaker 2: that we really hate on Merin Talk's money. Okay, let's
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  Speaker 2: be honest. One thing that I really hate it is admin.
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  Speaker 2: So this is all about navigating the maze of paperwork,
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  Speaker 2: the legal checks and all the deadlines. And this is
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  Speaker 2: where conveyancing comes in. It's a legal process that actually
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  Speaker 2: gets you from making an offer on a house to
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  Speaker 2: owning the thing at the end of the deal. And
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  Speaker 2: to discuss this, we are joined by Laura Condriit, the
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  Speaker 2: head of property at Pharao Own Company. She joined the
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  Speaker 2: company in twenty thirteen and she specializes in residential property
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  Speaker 2: sales and purchases in prime and super prime London as
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  Speaker 2: well as Country has this, So that's basically everything. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know why I started with the specifications. Really good
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  Speaker 2: to have you with us, Laura, thank you so much.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you both so much for having me.
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  Speaker 2: So let's start right at the beginning. When I was
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  Speaker 2: looking this up briefly before I started, I see that
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  Speaker 2: you need either a conveyancer or a conveyancing solicitor. Are
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  Speaker 2: these the same thing?
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  Speaker 3: Yes and no. So it's it's different legal qualifications, but
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  Speaker 3: the role in the process is exactly the same in
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  Speaker 3: terms of that's the person you go to, as you say,
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  Speaker 3: sometimes before the offer point, because sometimes we support clients
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  Speaker 3: in making that offer, but all the way through to
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  Speaker 3: completion of the the sale or purchase and registration at
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  Speaker 3: the land industry.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So who has more qualifications and therefore is more expensive?
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  Speaker 2: A conveyancing solicitor or a convey.
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  Speaker 3: A solicitor is likely to be more expensive, but different
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  Speaker 3: companies staff in different ways. But you don't want cheap
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  Speaker 3: in a slister or a convencer. Oh, I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: We always want cheap before we want value or do
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  Speaker 2: we want value? Well, I tell you what, as we've
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  Speaker 2: started down at the grubby end of the process, what
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  Speaker 2: does it cost in general to hire because we're not
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  Speaker 2: going to hire a slister because you told us to.
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  Speaker 2: How does it cost to hire a good slister to
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  Speaker 2: take us through this process? Does it depend on what
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  Speaker 2: kind of house we're buying, Does it depend on the size,
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  Speaker 2: Does it depend on whether it's land or not?
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  Speaker 3: All of those things for us are factored in, So
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  Speaker 3: we would look at whether it's new build, whether it's listed.
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  Speaker 3: As you say this, you know, are we buying two
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  Speaker 3: hundred acres or are we just buying a sort of
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  Speaker 3: terrace house in a sort of relatively vanilla street where
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  Speaker 3: nothing's been done to the house for thirty years. That
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  Speaker 3: for us gives us a steer on the amount of
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  Speaker 3: our time it's going to involve, and therefore, you know
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  Speaker 3: the cost of the deal. Different lawyers price in different ways.
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  Speaker 3: A high street convencer is likely to have a fixed
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  Speaker 3: fee scale that pretty much just links to the value
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  Speaker 3: of the property. You want a number, I.
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  Speaker 2: So want a number, you know, because what we're trying
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  Speaker 2: to do here or as we're trying to help people
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  Speaker 2: understand exactly how much money they need up from, because
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  Speaker 2: people always think about this in terms of just their deposit.
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  Speaker 2: But as we've discussed now over all this time, you
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  Speaker 2: know it's not just your deposit. It's your stamp duty,
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  Speaker 2: it's maybe your buying agency, as all these legal fees,
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  Speaker 2: its registration fees, its all sorts of things. So yes,
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  Speaker 2: do I need a number, I need a number.
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  Speaker 3: You'll very well have a number. All lawyers have this
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  Speaker 3: on their websites because we have pricing transparency, so you
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  Speaker 3: will find any company doing convincing work, we'll have this
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  Speaker 3: information on the website freely available to see. The shortest
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  Speaker 3: word in answering, that is to say, our fees for
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  Speaker 3: a sale or purchase at the lower complexity, lower value
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  Speaker 3: and start from five thousand plus th eighty and disbursements.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah okay, so it's actually it's quite a chunk once
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  Speaker 2: you've gone through all the effort of finding a place,
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  Speaker 2: figuring it, stap duty, the deposit, etcetera. This is the
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  Speaker 2: big barrier to buying all these cash payments up front.
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  Speaker 3: You would find people doing it for a lot less
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  Speaker 3: you would you would find firms doing it for less,
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  Speaker 3: they're likely to answer the phone more slowly, reply to
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  Speaker 3: emails more slowly, et cetera. If you want to do
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  Speaker 3: a sort of ten working day purchase, you need to
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  Speaker 3: come to a proper firm that's set up to do
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  Speaker 3: that with that speed and has capacity to take it on.
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  Speaker 3: But you could probably get someone to do it. And
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to guess now fifteen hundred quid plus fat
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  Speaker 3: might be what you pay someone to take three months
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  Speaker 3: to do your convincing on something that doesn't need that
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  Speaker 3: level of sort of speed and service.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, I think we're all going the hint.
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  Speaker 3: And nothing if not subtle.
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  Speaker 4: Just on this topic. One thing I did want task
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  Speaker 4: I was going to ask later but as well Tom,
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  Speaker 4: but might need to just know I've previously used and
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  Speaker 4: the pretty simple part sees that I've had for my
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  Speaker 4: who sees over the years, and I have used online
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  Speaker 4: conveniences and they've ice have been like, okay, they've been fine.
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  Speaker 4: What are the potential difficulties if you go down that route?
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  Speaker 4: Because I always thought, right, okay, so this has been okay,
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  Speaker 4: and I would recommend it to someone. But at the
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  Speaker 4: same time, have I just got lucky or does it
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  Speaker 4: just depend on the quality of the solicitor is involved.
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  Speaker 3: The thing with property is it's not just about property,
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  Speaker 3: it's about people. And particularly if you're in a chain
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  Speaker 3: of transactions, or if you're dealing with something at the
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  Speaker 3: sort of ultra network end and you're dealing with egos
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  Speaker 3: and people's competing interests, you need a really good estate
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  Speaker 3: agent to manage all of that. If you're not going
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  Speaker 3: to have solicitors who are talking and helping to sort
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  Speaker 3: of ionize those guests, well, someone changing in completion days
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  Speaker 3: or changing whether the curtains are included or not. That
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  Speaker 3: kind of thing can completely unravel a transaction when it shouldn't.
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  Speaker 3: And if you haven't got people community kating really openly
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  Speaker 3: and picking up the phone and being human about things,
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  Speaker 3: then you could unravel a deal that doesn't need to
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  Speaker 3: be unraveled in terms of the actual due diligence. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: you've got indempty insurance at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 3: So if you're not too worried about having to rely
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  Speaker 3: on that, then it sort of doesn't matter who he is.
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  Speaker 3: And all firms have all firms have to carry three
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  Speaker 3: million pounds, so as long as your properties under three
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  Speaker 3: million pounds, then.
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  Speaker 2: You should be fine. Oh John will be worried about that. Laura,
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  Speaker 2: tell you, what would you mind just talking us through
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  Speaker 2: the things that you do that the legal steps involved here,
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  Speaker 2: and then as a follow up question, I'd love it
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  Speaker 2: if you would explain what searchers actually are. People always going, well,
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  Speaker 2: it's the searchers, it's the searchers. What be doing with searches?
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  Speaker 2: The searchers take forever. It's a six week business to
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  Speaker 2: do the searches, and I'm honest with have no idea
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  Speaker 2: what they mean. I was speaking to one of my
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  Speaker 2: colleagues here who is using another firm for her convincing,
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  Speaker 2: and I don't think she understands half of what her
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  Speaker 2: lawyer has said to her, which is a shame because
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  Speaker 2: she's paying for a service where she should understand what's happening.
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  Speaker 3: So I feel where you're coming from. So let's go
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  Speaker 3: with the purchase rather than the sale then, because then
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  Speaker 3: we can do about So when a client instructs us,
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  Speaker 3: we obviously deal with KYC on boarding. We have to
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  Speaker 3: comply with anti money laundering regulations in the same way
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  Speaker 3: that sorry, I'm going.
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  Speaker 2: To interrupt you very briefly just because not everybody is
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  Speaker 2: in our world.
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  Speaker 3: Customer your client, yeah, client, yeah, no problem. So that's
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  Speaker 3: in very basic terms, if you're a really normal, lovely
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  Speaker 3: couple called mister and missus Smith who have made your
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  Speaker 3: money by going out to work, then it's providing me
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  Speaker 3: with a certified copy of your passport and a proof
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  Speaker 3: of address and some information about where you have made
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  Speaker 3: your wealth in general and where you've made the funds
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  Speaker 3: that you're using towards the purchase that cash element if
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  Speaker 3: you mean, you'vet a mortgage for some of it, So
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  Speaker 3: dealing with.
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  Speaker 2: That, it's an anti money laundering yeah, absolutely absolutely, In
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  Speaker 2: these statage, it's have to be involved in that process
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  Speaker 2: as well.
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  Speaker 3: Some of them will follow their own and some of
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  Speaker 3: them will piggyback on the work that the lawyer has
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  Speaker 3: done there and ask us to share it. People are
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  Speaker 3: pretty good now a sort of expecting that and going
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  Speaker 3: through the motions. Overseas, buyers can still be a little
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  Speaker 3: bit reluctant to be as open as domestic people. I
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  Speaker 3: think we've just had the rules for longer and people
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  Speaker 3: are more more used to it in twenty twenty five. Okay,
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  Speaker 3: so we're onboarded the next thing that we will do
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  Speaker 3: is talk to a client about a survey, because we
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  Speaker 3: want to get the wheels in motion with making sure
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  Speaker 3: that they are having a physical survey of the property
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  Speaker 3: to make sure that there are no issues that you know,
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  Speaker 3: are they going to have to allow in their budgeting
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  Speaker 3: for a new roof in the next five years, Is
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  Speaker 3: there any damp, Is there anything sort of horrendous going on?
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  Speaker 3: What we quite like is having a surveyor who's also
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  Speaker 3: going to have a good look and be our eyes
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  Speaker 3: and ears on the ground as to compliance with planning
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  Speaker 3: and buildings regulations. So if the property has been extended,
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  Speaker 3: has it actually been built as per the permitted extension,
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  Speaker 3: or did something go away and get a planning permission
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  Speaker 3: and then just build something twice as big or decide
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  Speaker 3: that the window would look better as a door halfway
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  Speaker 3: through building that. So we work hand in hand with
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  Speaker 3: the surveyor on looking at the physical property both from
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  Speaker 3: a defects point of view, but also from a regulatory
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  Speaker 3: compliance point of view. So we get that survey booked
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  Speaker 3: in if we can nice and early. At the same time,
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  Speaker 3: we'll put in those searches that you were asking about.
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  Speaker 3: The most important one of those is the local authority search,
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  Speaker 3: and the reason it's the most important is because it
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  Speaker 3: could show up the things which could lead us to
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  Speaker 3: say that the property hasn't got good and marketable title,
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  Speaker 3: which means that we wouldn't be signing off on it
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  Speaker 3: as good security for a loan if there's a mortgage,
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  Speaker 3: and we wouldn't be recommending to the client to go
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  Speaker 3: ahead and buy it, which doesn't happen very often, but
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  Speaker 3: it's the local search quite often that we'll throw something
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  Speaker 3: out in that area, whether that's a tree preservation order
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  Speaker 3: where as you say, somebody's ext ended and then they've
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  Speaker 3: decided to just get rid of the tree that was
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  Speaker 3: inconveniently in the way, and there's perhaps some enforcement action
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  Speaker 3: happening about that that we would then see in that search,
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  Speaker 3: or a breach.
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  Speaker 2: We've got to be more careful.
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  Speaker 3: There's all kinds of hazards we have to be careful about,
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  Speaker 3: and that local search is the one that historically has
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  Speaker 3: been a real problem in terms of the speed of
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  Speaker 3: the process. Most of the London boroughs now a pretty speedy.
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  Speaker 3: Camden's always been a little bitter, but I think they've
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  Speaker 3: started to get their act together a little bit more
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  Speaker 3: in recent years, and then up and down the country
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  Speaker 3: it varies, and you'll have periods of time where the
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  Speaker 3: local authority are slow at turning around those searches because
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  Speaker 3: people are on holiday or are the leave unexpectedly and
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  Speaker 3: they don't have the human physical capital to fulfill the
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  Speaker 3: search requests, and then the search will take longer. So
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  Speaker 3: that's where that suggestion has come from, that the search
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  Speaker 3: is the searches, but most of them are sort of
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  Speaker 3: ten working days now, some aer five working days. They've
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  Speaker 3: all digitalized quite a lot, so when they're pulling together
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  Speaker 3: the information to answer that set of inquiries that comprise
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  Speaker 3: that search, a lot of that information now is electronic
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  Speaker 3: and pull through, whereas it used to be a very
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  Speaker 3: manual process. And then there's other searches, so there's a drainage,
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  Speaker 3: water search, flood search, chance or search. I don't think
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  Speaker 3: you've got the time for that today.
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  Speaker 2: And who are all these done with? If you're doing
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  Speaker 2: a flood search again, is that done with the local
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  Speaker 2: authority who.
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  Speaker 3: Did talk to? Every law firm has a centralized provider,
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  Speaker 3: there's competing providers and they go off and then and
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  Speaker 3: then get those searches in from the relevant organizations to
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  Speaker 3: provide them. So for a drainage of water search in London,
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  Speaker 3: it's Thames Water that the information comes from, for example,
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  Speaker 3: than the local authority. It will depend on which London
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  Speaker 3: borough you're in, et cetera.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, and a chance or search. We do have time
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  Speaker 2: because I'm thinking to myself that this is connected that
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  Speaker 2: awful period about I can't remember, what about ten years
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  Speaker 2: ago when suddenly all sorts of people living in old
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  Speaker 2: vicarages discovered that they were personally liable for repairing the
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  Speaker 2: roof of their local church. Is that what we're talking about, Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: We are. In twenty thirteen, there was a requirement that
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  Speaker 3: if the churches had a chance or liability, which is,
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  Speaker 3: as you say, the responsibility for repairs that is incumbent
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  Speaker 3: on surrounding residents, that they take shareish and registered at
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  Speaker 3: the land Registry or forever hold their peace. And so
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  Speaker 3: if a property has been conveyed, it's been transferred for
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  Speaker 3: consideration i e. Payment since that date, then you're fine
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  Speaker 3: on chancel. You don't need to worry about chancel because
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  Speaker 3: it's either on the land registry title or you can't
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  Speaker 3: be held responsible for it. If the property haven't changed
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  Speaker 3: hands since twenty thirteen, then you still need to carry
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  Speaker 3: out that chancel search and see if there's a liability there.
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  Speaker 3: In short, there's also this amazing thing called indemnity insurance
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  Speaker 3: that people then take out to just paper over the cracks.
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  Speaker 4: I don't remember. I do remember that to buy chancel.
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  Speaker 4: And as for one of the properties that we bought,
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  Speaker 4: I think I was into. Yeah, it was an expensive
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  Speaker 4: but it was so.
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  Speaker 3: It still does.
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  Speaker 4: Haven't it explained to you? There wasn't a chart within
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  Speaker 4: like viewing.
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  Speaker 3: Some of them had had sort of quite wide ranging
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  Speaker 3: parishes that they were responsible for.
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  Speaker 2: What about things like disputes with neighbors and that kind
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  Speaker 2: of thing. Does that come into the search of Like
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  Speaker 2: if you had a long gooing dispute with your neighbor
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  Speaker 2: over the headge or over their kid thaying the drums
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  Speaker 2: too loud.
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  Speaker 3: That forms part of the sales pack that the sellers
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  Speaker 3: slister will will pull together. So this the seller what
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  Speaker 3: we sent standard form of inquiries and that covers all
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  Speaker 3: of those things, disputes, complaints, It gives details of where
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  Speaker 3: the stopcock is in the house, whether any alterations have
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  Speaker 3: been carried out. You know, it's sort of a sort
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  Speaker 3: of white Japanese not weird. All kinds of weird and
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  Speaker 3: wonderful things are covered by those standard inquiries. If that
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  Speaker 3: form were completed properly by sellers, and I don't blame
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  Speaker 3: the seller, say, because warm filling is a really hard
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  Speaker 3: thing to do. I hate admin in my personal life
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  Speaker 3: there and you and I have that in common.
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  Speaker 2: Ye, so hard lying.
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  Speaker 3: So my working life. No, no, no, no, we don't
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  Speaker 3: do that. We definitely don't want to be doing that.
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  Speaker 3: But if the seller and their lawyer took five minutes
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  Speaker 3: to jump on a call and just skim through that
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  Speaker 3: form before sending it off to the buyer's lawyers, then
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  Speaker 3: all of the questions that the seller hasn't quite answered
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  Speaker 3: fully enough, or where they've said works have been done
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: that the buyer's lawyer is then going to say, great,
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: where's the certificate for those electrical works or those gas
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: works please? Or the building rates sign off for that
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  Speaker 3: whopping great extension that you've just told me you've built.
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  Speaker 3: That might speed the process along a bit. So there's
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  Speaker 3: a little bit on the seller preparation side where if
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  Speaker 3: you've got a really great sales pack prepared for you,
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: then you don't need to ask as many follow up inquiries.
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  Speaker 3: So all of that standard information is given to you.
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  Speaker 3: The lawyer then will review it, but you need to
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  Speaker 3: ask some follow up inquiries, and that will be stuff
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  Speaker 3: that's come out of the search results, stuff that's come
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  Speaker 3: out of those standard replies to inquiries, things that the
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  Speaker 3: surveyor has asked to be checked, and you then ask
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  Speaker 3: any necessary additional inquiries. That back and forth is where
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  Speaker 3: the process can then either go really smoothly or take
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  Speaker 3: quite a long time to work through.
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  Speaker 2: And does this all work the same with the flatters?
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  Speaker 2: With the house, it's got to be more complicated. Actually
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  Speaker 2: it is more complicated and then more expensive. So with
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  Speaker 2: a lease or flat, you obviously have a separate landlord,
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  Speaker 2: usually with managing agents, depending on whether you're in a
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  Speaker 2: big block or a sort of you know, Mazinet type
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  Speaker 2: house divided up scenario, and you will get some additional
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  Speaker 2: information as part of that sales pack from the managing
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  Speaker 2: agents for the building. So again there's a standard form
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  Speaker 2: with replies to inquiries that the managing agents fill in
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  Speaker 2: that says how much the service charges, gives you a
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  Speaker 2: copy of the accounts tells you whether there's any service charge.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Arrears gives you the Buildings Insurance a whole swathe of
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  Speaker 2: information about that sort of physical setup of the building,
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  Speaker 2: the common parts, the community garden, if there is one
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  Speaker 2: facilities in the building, et cetera. So that's just more
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  Speaker 2: information for us to wade through.
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  Speaker 3: And check that it's satisfactory and complete and again if
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  Speaker 3: we need to, and usually with the leasehold there are
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  Speaker 3: follow up questions on that area as well.
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  Speaker 4: Obviously you've seen an awful lot of properties and you've
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: got a lawyer expertise, So as an individual and as
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: maybe a warning if us stained by us, is it
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: anything that consistently crops up as an aid flag and
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: that makes you say, this is something you need to
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: be aware of that maybe a normal civilian would not
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: be awad of.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, with apartments all the time, it's pets, wood flooring
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: and alterations.
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: Wood flooring, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what someone living
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: above you with wood flooring and so most buildings that
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: you're not allowed to have it, right, but then people
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: put it in against the rule through the building and
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: it's gonna be pulled up and you got to put
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: in carpets you bought there's great, you know warehouse dial
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: apartment with wooden floors and big windows, and then you
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: find you got to go out and get some you know,
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: inflammable nylon carpet to put the dog.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: I couldn't have put it better.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Oh that's truly okay to me.
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: That's a good one.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, pets flooring and alterations. The pets one is such
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: a thing these days. People just assume they're going to
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: be able to have their dog in their apartment, and
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: they also leap to conclusions when a flatteres share a freehold,
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: they assume that there aren't going to be any rules
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: or regulations that apply to their flats as they're buying
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: to a freehold. So quite often the dog only the
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: dog's existence only emerges when you're some way down the process.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: Agents are getting much much better I think, at asking
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: these questions upfront and when somebody's looking at making an
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: offer on a flat, finding out whether it's a building
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: that's dog friendly or not, and that just comes down
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: to the wording in the lease and whether there's an
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: absolute restriction or whether there's a we'll let your dog
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: in if we have a reference for the dog. I mean,
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: I have pet applications where you're literally getting written references
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: for the behavior of the animal and you're sending photos
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: and its name and an Instagram account.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: In one case, Wow, yeah, this is so No, this
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: is so Manhattan. You wouldn't have expect it.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: Who is it that is setting visuals? Because if you've
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: got a share of the freehold, then you are the freeholder,
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: So who enforces that?
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: So normally, when you're in a share of freehold building,
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: say there are twenty flats in the building, there's a
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: company then that owns the building, and you each have
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: a share in that company. The directors of the company,
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: their obligation is to enforce the landlord terms in the lease.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: The lease will have been written when the building was
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: first developed into flats and when that first became a thing,
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: and the lease won't have allowed sometimes for what is
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: a modernization and a cultural shift and an evolution, and
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: doesn't necessarily sit as well in twenty twenty five as
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: it might have done when the lease was drafted in
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: you know, like to lays and like n whenever it
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: might have been so. Yes, in theory, as a shareholder
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: in that company, as a member of that company, you
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: could suggest that everybody gets together, and everybody varies the leases,
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: and everybody varies that covenant. But you need to reach
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: an amount of consensus in order to create change. And
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: unless you're going to get to the necessary level of consensus,
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: you're stuck with the lease as drafted, and the directors
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: their duty is to enforce it. All the managing agents
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: they employ on their behalf is to is to keep
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: harmony in the building by ensuring that everybody is complying
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: with that lease. It's the same thing with airbnb use,
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: for example. So everybody assumes that they can just whack
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: their flat on Airbnb if they want. You Again, generally
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: with flats, there's something in there that says you can't,
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: and that it's fine to sublet it on a long
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: term basis. But because of reasons of people not wanting
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: the trundling of wheellycase wheels outside their flat or above
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: their head in the middle of the night, that's why
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: the clause would have been drafted in the lease in
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: the first place, that it needs to be occupied by
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: a single household or a single family, and that it
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: can't be sublet on a short term basis. Those kinds
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: of things are the issues that arise with clients who
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: just are unfamiliar with the system, have never waughter flat before.
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: Wouldn't think that that's something to be aware of.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, I have two more quick questions. The first
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: one is pylons.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: Okay, this might be very quick one. It might be
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: very quick.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: One of the things that comes up over and over
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: and over again is this fear that people now have
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: of buying a house in the countryside or even in
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: the suburbs, anywhere near any piece of open land, that
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: they might wake up one morning and find that part
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: of that the new and transmission line is going to
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: run through their garden or in their garden, for example.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Do the searchers throw up that kind of thing? That's
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: what comes up any planning applications around you, anything that
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: might turn your idyllic bit of countryside into an industrial site.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Will that pop up?
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Or is it really never safe to buy in the
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: countryside anymore?
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: I mean, we carry out a planning search and standard,
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: and not all law firms would we do because we
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: think it's something that people care about and we think
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: it's important.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: The result price versus value, everyone's price versus value.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: The results for a snapshot in time, so they will
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: show you any current planning applications as at the date
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: you apply for the search. What they won't necessarily show
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: you is the planning potential of neighboring land and whether
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: the view that you so adore and the reason that
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: you're buying the country house and the tranquility and the
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: peace and everything else, whether that is going to be
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: there for the foreseeable. For some clients we do a
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: little bit of extra digging. We obtain the titles for
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: neighboring land, see who the owners are, see how long
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: they've owned them for. You know, we can get a
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: planning consultant involved to advise on whether the green belt
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: is ever likely to you know, be turned into something else,
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: the chances of anyone getting permission to put some horrendous
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: in the adjoining land. But I think with everything in life,
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: there is an element of risk, and that is is
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: one of them when you're buying in the countryside. But
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: you absolutely shouldn't not buy there because of it. You
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: should just you know, take an education and informed decision.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Okay, final question, unless John has another, is how do
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: you find the old lister? I mean, I think we
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: probably know that you shouldn't use the solicitor employed by
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: the estate agent.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: Again a really interesting one because lots of my work
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: is referred by a stage agents, lots and lots of
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: my work from agents. But I absolutely am entirely and
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: depends employed by not employed by them. I don't take
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: a referral fee. I don't give a referral fee that
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: you know they send work to me because they know
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: I'm going to look after the client really well and
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: get the job done. So I don't have that natural
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: sort of instinct. I can totally understand why you.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Were I suppose I'm not. I don't think that's what
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: I meant. I didn't mean don't take a referral I
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: meant that sometimes you find this list right sally taking
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: rever of fees from sitting in the office with etceter
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: their joint businesses.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: I think some of them have them in house. Some
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: of them have a sort of flight on your quid,
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: passing here or there when the whole conveytion fhe's only
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: a thousand pounds and anything hews anyone doing anything in
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: any way to say yes that I would, I would
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: be nervous about. I think, as with everything, speak to
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: your friends. John said he had a great experience with
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: his online commencers. I would be listening to that. If
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: I were buying a you know, by to let investment
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: property for not very much money, I might just say, Okay, fine,
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: let's go for that. Why not it worked for you,
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: it would work for me. So I think I would
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: speak to the agents and say who've you had good
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: and bad experiences with? Because you want that team of
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: people who are who were working together for a transaction
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: to happen to be happy. So I wouldn't appoint a
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: solicitor that the estate agent hated, because that's that's not
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: a sensible thing to be doing. And I'm speak to
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: friends and family and see who they've had had a
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: good experience with.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Brilliant. Thanks for coming on, Laura Pleasure, Thanks for listening
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: this week's Maren Talks Your Money. If you like us, share, rate, review,
• 24:02
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• 24:05
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• 24:08
  Speaker 2: You can also follow me and John on Twitter or
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: x I'm at Maren sw and John is John Underscore Steppe.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: This episode was hosted by Me maren zumrset web. It
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: was produced by Someersadi Moses and and Tala Amadi. Sound
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: designed by Blake Naples Splicial thanks to Laura Conduit