I am buying a ground floor flat in Green Street Green. My lawyer has never been on on the lender conveyancing list. Can I still continue with my Green Street Green conveyancing solicitor notwithstanding that they are excluded from the bank panel?

You have a number of options available to you here

• Proceed with your existing Green Street Green conveyancer but your bank will no doubt instruct a solicitor from their conveyancing panel. The net result is additional cost and probable interruption.
• Choose a fresh solicitor to act in the purchase, making sure they are on the lender conveyancing panel.
• Convince your property lawyer to do everything possible to get accepted on the bank’s panel of solicitors

My son-in-law is buying a house that has just been built in Green Street Green with a mortgage from Lloyds. His lawyer has said that there is 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 form 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 Lloyds 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 Lloyds conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.

Will my conveyancer be asking questions about flooding during the conveyancing in Green Street Green.

Flooding is a growing risk for solicitors dealing with homes in Green Street Green. Plenty of people will buy a house in Green Street Green, completely aware that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical damage, if a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to obtain a mortgage, satisfactory building insurance, or dispose of the property. Steps can be carried out during the course of a property purchase to forewarn the purchaser.

Solicitors are not best placed to offer advice on flood risk, however there are a various searches that can be undertaken by the purchaser or by their lawyers which can figure out the risks in Green Street Green. The conventional set of property information forms sent to a buyer’s lawyer (where the Conveyancing Protocol is adopted) includes a standard question of the owner to determine whether the premises has suffered from flooding. If the residence has been flooded in past which is not revealed by the owner, then a buyer could issue a claim for damages as a result of such an incorrect answer. A purchaser’s solicitors will also carry out an enviro search. This should disclose whether there is any known flood risk. If so, additional investigations will need to be conducted.

I am buying my first flat in Green Street Green with the aid of help to buy. The developers refused to reduce the amount so I negotiated 6k of fixtures and fittings instead. The estate agent told me not inform my conveyancer about this extras as it could affect my loan with the lender. 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.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Green Street Green with the purpose of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Green Street Green can be bypassed if you appoint lawyers the minute you market your property and ask them to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers’ representatives.
If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where a dispute is unresolved. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as historic rather than unsettled. You may think that you are aware of the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be advisable double-check via your conveyancers. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to to exchange contracts if the lease term is less than 80 years. It is therefore important at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale. A minority of Green Street Green leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers put in hand bank and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the yearly 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 actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their lawyers. In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? In particular have you laid down wooden flooring? Green Street Green leases often stipulate that internal structural alterations or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such alterations. If you dont have the approvals to hand do not communicate with the landlord without contacting your conveyancer in the first instance.

Despite our best endeavours, we have been unsuccessful in negotiating a lease extension in Green Street Green. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?

Most definitely. We can put you in touch with a Green Street Green conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Green Street Green property is 1 Southlands Court Southlands Road in September 2013. The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal determined that the premium to be paid by the tenant on the grant of a new lease, in accordance with section 56 and Schedule 13 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 was £30,541 This case related to 1 flat. The number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 50.57 years.