I'm in the process of transferring my current homeowner home loan to a BTL Chelsea Building Society mortgage. I have been informed by my broker that I require a lawyer as part of the process. I spoke to my past Bubwith conveyancing solicitor who dealt with the legals when I originally purchased the house. The pricing estimate provided of just over five hundred pounds is an eye-watering amount to do this as its a remortgage than a sale or purchase.

The charges appear a tad high. If you shop around you might trim some of the cost by say £100 plus VAT. On the other hand, providing that you were happy with the legal work the firm provided you mightlive to regret choosing an an untested conveyancer. Remember to ensure the solicitor can also act for Chelsea Building Society. You can make use of our search tool to locate a Bubwith conveyancing firm on the Chelsea Building Society approved list of lawyers, which can often include conveyancing solicitors in Bubwith.

I am purchasing a 3 bedroom semi in Bubwith. We would like to an extension at the rear at the property.Will legal work on the property involve investigations to ascertain if these alterations are permitted?

Your solicitor should check the deeds as conveyancing in Bubwith can on occasion identify restrictions in the title documents which prevent certain works or require the consent of another owner. Many extensions call for local authority planning consent and approval in compliance with building regulations. Many locations are designated conservation areas and special planning restrictions apply which frequently prevent or impact extensions. It would be sensible to check these issues with a surveyor ahead of any purchase.

We have agreed to purchase a house in Bubwith. An unusual aspect is that the roof has a solar panel. Solicitors conducting should look into this right? Will my lender Virgin Money be concerned?

Given that you are obtaining a mortgage with Virgin Money your lawyer must follow the conveyancing requirements outlined in Section 2 of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Virgin Money. The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook contains minimum requirements for solar panel roof-space leases, and lawyers are required to report to Virgin Money where a lease does not meet these specifications. The requirements relate to the installation of panels on properties nationwide and is not isolated to Bubwith.

I recently had an offer accepted on a house in Bubwith. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their property lawyer. I paid an upfront payment of £150. Not long after, the conveyancing practitioner contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Santander conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?

You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Santander panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.

My relative recommended that if I am buying in Bubwith I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?

This is a search is sometimes included in the estimate for your Bubwith conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of about 40 pages, listing and detailing important information about Bubwith around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Bubwith Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime details, Bubwith Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about Bubwith.

We're new on the property ladder - agreed a price, yet the agent advised that the vendor will only move forward if we appoint their preferred solicitors as they are insisting on a ‘quick sale’. Our preferred option is to instruct a family solicitor with experience of conveyancing in Bubwith

We suspect that the seller is not behind this ultimatum. Should the vendor want ‘a quick sale', alienating a serious buyer is not the way to achieve this. Try to communicate with the owners directly and make sure they comprehend that (a)you are keen to buy (b)you are excited to move forward, with mortgage lined up © you do not need to sell (d) you intend to proceed fast (e)but you are going to use your preferred Bubwith conveyancing lawyers - as opposed tothe ones that will give the negotiator at the agency a kickback or hit his conveyancing targets pre-set by senior management.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Bubwith with the intention of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Bubwith can be avoided if you get in touch lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved prior to the flat being put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved. If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should ensure that you are holding the original share certificate. Organising a replacement share certificate is often a lengthy formality and frustrates many a Bubwith home move. If a new share is required, do contact the company director and secretary or managing agents (if relevant) for this sooner rather than later. Some Bubwith leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the annual service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors.

I purchased a leasehold flat in Bubwith, conveyancing having been completed 6 years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Equivalent properties in Bubwith with an extended lease are worth £211,000. The ground rent is £50 charged once a year. The lease ceases on 21st October 2092

With 68 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £9,500 and £11,000 plus costs.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more comprehensive investigations. You should not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other issues that need to be considered and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.