Our grandson is in the process of securing a house that has just been built in Cuffley with a home loan from Nottingham. His lawyer has advised him of a delay in receiving the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. This document is news to me - what is it and who needs sight of it?

The document is intended to provide information to the main parties involved in the transaction. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the Nottingham conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the surveyor when requested. The developer will be required to start the process by downloading the form and completing it. The form will therefore need to be available for the valuer at the time of his or her site visit. The form should be sent to the Nottingham conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.

The Cuffley conveyancing solicitors that I recently instructed on my house acquisition in Cuffley have without warning closed. I chose them because I had to have a solicitor on the Lloyds conveyancing panel and my preferred Cuffley lawyer was not. I paid them 275 plus VAT on account. What are my options?

If you have an estate agent involved then inform them straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Lloyds conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors should be in a position to assist.

We are purchasing a detached bungalow in Cuffley. The intention is to convert the garage to an office at the property.Will legal conveyancing on the property involve checks to ascertain if these works were previously refused?

Your conveyancer will check the deeds as conveyancing in Cuffley can occasionally identify restrictions in the title deeds which restrict certain changes or necessitated the consent of another owner. Many works call for local authority planning permissions and approval in compliance with building regulations. Certain areas are designated conservation areas and special planning restrictions apply which often prevent or affect extensions. You should check these things with a surveyor ahead of any purchase.

I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Cuffley. My mortgage broker suggested a solicitor. I paid an on account payment of £175. A few days later, the property lawyer called me to say that they were not on the RBS 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 RBS 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.

I am due to exchange contracts on my flat. I had a double glazing fitted in November 2008, but did not receive a FENSA certificate or Building Regulation Certificate. My buyer's mortgage company, Nationwide are being difficult. The Cuffley solicitor who is on the Nationwide conveyancing panel is recommending indemnity insurance as a solution but Nationwide are insisting on a building regulation certificate. Why do Nationwide have a conveyancing panel if they don't accept advice from them?

It is probably the case that Nationwide have referred the matter to their valuer. The reason why Nationwide may not want to accept indemnity insurance is because it does not give them any reassurance that the double glazing was correctly and safely installed. The indemnity insurance merely protects against enforcement action which is very unlikely anyway.

I am purchasing my first flat in Cuffley with the aid of help to buy. The sellers refused to budge the amount so I negotiated 6k of fixtures and fittings instead. The estate agent suggested that I not disclose to my lawyer about the extras as it would affect my loan with National Westminster Bank. Is this normal?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.

Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.

Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my garden apartment in Cuffley. Conveyancing is yet to be initiated, however I have recently received a quarterly maintenance charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should clear the service charge as normal as all ground rent and service charges should be apportioned as part of the financial calculations for completion monies, so you will be reimbursed by the purchaser for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer unless 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 purchased a split level flat in Cuffley, conveyancing having been completed half a dozen years ago. How much will my lease extension cost? Equivalent flats in Cuffley with a long lease are worth £201,000. The ground rent is £45 invoiced annually. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2089

You have 65 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £13,300 and £15,400 plus professional fees.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs in the absence of detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other concerns that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action placing reliance on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.