My partner and I are hoping to buy a house in Ellesmere and are in fact using a Ellesmere conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Santander have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Ellesmere solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?

When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Ellesmere lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

Do the conveyancing lawyers listed on your site carry out attended exchange conveyancing in Ellesmere?

We do have a number of conveyancing experts who can conduct attended exchanges. Please e-mail us to receive a conveyancing quote and details as to dates.

My relative suggested that where I am buying in Ellesmere I should ask my conveyancer to perform 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 Ellesmere conveyancing searches. It is a large report of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing important information about Ellesmere around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Ellesmere Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information concerning Ellesmere.

I would like to rent out my leasehold apartment in Ellesmere. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask her. Do I need to ask my freeholder for their consent?

The lease dictates relations between the freeholder and you the flat owner; specifically, it will set out if subletting is not allowed, or permitted but only subject to certain conditions. The rule is that if the lease contains no expres ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. The majority of leases in Ellesmere do not contain subletting altogether – such a clause would adversely affect the market value the flat. In most cases there is simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a copy of the sublease.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Ellesmere - Examples of Questions you should ask Prior to buying

Generally speaking the cost for major works tend not to be included within service charges, albeit that a few managing agents in Ellesmere obliged leaseholders to pay into a reserve fund and this is used to offset against larger repairs or maintenance. Are there any major works anticipated that could increase the maintenance costs? How much is the ground rent and service charge?

To what extent are Ellesmere conveyancing solicitors under an obligation to the Law Society to issue transparent conveyancing costs?

Contained within the Solicitors Code of Conduct are prescriptive rules and regulations as to how the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) allow solicitors to publicise their fees to clients.The Law Society have practice note giving advice on how to publicise transparent charges to avoid breaching any such rule. Practice notes are not legal advice issued by the Law Society and is not intended as the only standard of good practice a conveyancing solicitor should adhere to. The Practice Note does, however, constitute the Law Society’s perspective of acceptable practice for publicising conveyancing charges, and accordingly it’s a recommended read for any solicitor or conveyancer in Ellesmere or further afield.