I am aiming to move house in March. Does my conveyancing solicitor call the removal company on the day of completion. As an aside, can you put forward a removal company in Bishop Auckland. Conveyancing lawyer was found prior to coming across your website.

On the afternoon of completion you can pick up the keys from your selling agent but this can only be done when the vendors solicitors confirm to the agent that they acknowledge receipt of the completion payment and the keys can be passed over. After that you can advise the removal company that they can start moving you in. We do not recommend a particular removal company but can assist you in finding a residential property solicitor in Bishop Auckland or a firm that specialises in conveyancing in Bishop Auckland.

I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with Leeds Building Society. I assume I don't need a Bishop Auckland property lawyer on the Leeds Building Society panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.

If you have finished paying off your Leeds Building Society mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Leeds Building Society mortgage from the register. Leeds Building Society, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:

1. but are not moving to another property
2. where Leeds Building Society has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
3. Leeds Building Society has instructed the Land Registry to do so

I've digested plenty of mortgage guides, I note that they all recommend that you should get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local Bishop Auckland solicitor - who is on the Aldermore conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. Is that normal?

Aldermore will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Aldermore will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Bishop Auckland postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Aldermore, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Bishop Auckland.

My relative suggested that where I am purchasing in Bishop Auckland I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?

A search of this type is occasionally included in the estimate for your Bishop Auckland conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing important information about Bishop Auckland around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Bishop Auckland Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime statistics, Local Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information concerning Bishop Auckland.

How does conveyancing in Bishop Auckland differ for newly converted properties?

Most buyers of new build or newly converted property in Bishop Auckland contact us having been asked by the housebuilder to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the residence is completed. This is because new home sellers in Bishop Auckland usually buy the site, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancers as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are accustomed to new build conveyancing in Bishop Auckland or who has acted in the same development.

What makes a Bishop Auckland lease unmortgageable?

Leasehold conveyancing in Bishop Auckland is not unique. Most leases are drafted differently and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain provisions are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

A provision for the recovery of money spent for the benefit of another party.

A defective lease will likely cause issues when trying to sell a property primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Nationwide Building Society, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and TSB all have express requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to provide security, obliging the buyer to withdraw.

I invested in buying a leasehold flat in Bishop Auckland, conveyancing having been completed 3 years ago. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Similar flats in Bishop Auckland with an extended lease are worth £186,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £55 yearly. The lease expires on 21st October 2077

With only 53 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £27,600 and £31,800 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to supply the actual costs without more detailed investigations. You should not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt other issues that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.

My step-son is just in the process of moving home, he had his mortgage in principle. One the seller agreed the offer on the house we contacted the building society to issue the formal offer. We were shocked to discover that mortgage lenders do not accept all solicitor, they must be on their panel, is this correct?

Mortgage Companies ordinarily restrict either the type or the number of conveyancing practices on their panel. Typical examples of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that banks have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any Bishop Auckland solicitor on their panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, conveyancing is not their speciality. To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime? Presumably not.