I am buying a property without a mortgage in Greenwich. I have been living for the previous 20 years in Greenwich. Conveyancing searches are a lot of money. As I have knowledge of the area and road very well must I have all the conveyancing searches?

In the absence of a home loan, then all but one or two of the Greenwich conveyancing searches are at your discretion. Your solicitor will try and steer you, perhaps strongly, that you should have searches completed, but she is duty bound to do this. Do consider; if you are intend to sell the house in the future, it could be of interest to your prospective purchaser what the searches determine. Sometimes houses with day to day issues can still show up unexpected search results. A competent conveyancing solicitor in Greenwich should be able to give you some sensible advice in this regard.

My brother-in-law has suggested I instruct a conveyancing solicitor in Greenwich. I I would like to check if they are accepted on the Skipton Building Society conveyancing panel. Can you help?

The first thing you should do is phone your conveyancer and ask them whether they are on the lender panel. Otherwise you should call Skipton Building Society who may be able to assist.

I have recentlybecome aware that Stirling Law have closed. They conducted my conveyancing in Greenwich for a purchase of a freehold house 18 months ago. How can I establish that the property is not still registered in the name of the former proprietor?

The quickest way to check if the property is in your name, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Greenwich conveyancing specialists.

I opted to have a survey carried out on a house in Greenwich ahead of appointing lawyers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. My surveyor advised that some mortgage companies may not issue a loan on this type of premises.

It varies from the lender to lender. HSBC has different instructions from Birmingham Midshires. If you e-mail us we can look into this further with the relevant lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Greenwich. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in Greenwich especially if they regularly deal with such properties in Greenwich.

My wife and I purchased a leasehold flat in Greenwich. Conveyancing and HSBC Bank mortgage organised. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1995. The conveyancing solicitor in Greenwich who previously acted has long since retired. Any advice?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of the Land Registry to be sure that this person is indeed the new freeholder. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Greenwich conveyancing solicitor to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that in any event, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I have tried to negotiate informally with with my landlord for a lease extension without any joy. Can one make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal? Can you recommend a Greenwich conveyancing firm to assist?

in cases where there is a absentee freeholder or where there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes it is possible to make an application to the LVT to decide the amount due.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Greenwich residence is 73 Walerand Road in August 2012. the result of the findings of the Tribunal led to a premium to be paid for the extended lease in respect of Flat 73 in the sum of £10,040. The premium applicable in respect of Flat 85 was £5,710. This case related to 2 flats. The remaining number of years on the lease was 72 years.