My fiance and I are looking to buy a home in Bramley and have instructed a Bramley conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Santander have this evening contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Bramley conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?

Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the purchaser's lender. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Accreditation Scheme. Your property lawyer should contact your lender and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Bramley lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.

Would the conveyancing lawyers that you recommend conduct attended exchange conveyancing in Bramley?

There are a few conveyancing experts who can conduct attended exchanges. Do e-mail us to receive a costs illustration and details as to availability.

My uncle passed away six months ago and as sole heir and executor I was left the house in Bramley. The house had a relatively small loan remaining of approximately £4500. I want to transfer the title deeds into my name whilst I re-mortgage to UBS, pay off the mortgage. Is this possible?

Where you intend to refinance then UBS will require that you use a conveyancer on the UBS conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your UBS conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the UBS mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.

Just had an offer accepted on a new build apartment in Bramley. Conveyancing is necessary evil at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. What sort of enquires would be asked in new build legal work.

Here are examples of a selection of leasehold new build enquiries that you can expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Bramley

Forfeiture - bankruptcy or liquidation must not apply under this provision. The Vendor must covenant to keep unsold units in good repair until long leases are granted therefore. The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme. There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. Please supply evidence that the form of Lease proposed has been approved by the Land Registry.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my ground floor apartment in Bramley. Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed, however I have recently received a quarterly service charge invoice – what should I do?

It best that you discharge the maintenance contribution as normal because all ground rent and maintenance payments will be allotted on completion, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the subsequent invoice date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am the registered owner of a 2 bed flat in Bramley, conveyancing was carried out 5 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? Comparable properties in Bramley with over 90 years remaining are worth £227,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 yearly. The lease terminates on 21st October 2097

With 72 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to range between £9,500 and £11,000 plus costs.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to supply the actual costs in the absence of detailed investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.