As someone not used to the Ham conveyancing process what’s the number one tip you can impart for the house moving process in Ham

You may not hear this from too many lawyers but conveyancing in Ham or throughout Surrey is often a confrontational experience. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there is an abundance of room for confrontation between you and other parties involved in the house moving process. E.g., the vendor, property agent and even potentially a lender. Appointing a law firm for your conveyancing in Ham should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONLY person in the legal process whose role it is to protect your legal interests and to protect you.

There is a definite ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone has to be blamed for the process taking so long. We recommend that you your first instinct should be to trust your lawyer ahead of all other players in the conveyancing process.

My wife and I have a semi-detached Edwardian house in Ham. Conveyancing lawyer acted for me and Godiva Mortgages Ltd. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and I saw two entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold under the exact same address. Is it worth asking Godiva Mortgages Ltd to clarify?

You need to review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Ham and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they sell they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with purchasers. You can also check the position with your conveyancing lawyer who conducted the purchase.

I'm buying a new build house in Ham benefiting from help to buy. The sellers would not budge the amount so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The sale representative told me not reveal to my solicitor about this side-deal as it could put at risk my loan with the lender. Should I keep quiet?.

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.

I am looking for a flat up to £235,500 and identified one round the corner in Ham I like with open areas and transport links nearby, however it's only got 61 years unexpired on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Ham for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a lease with such few years left?

Should you need a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be an issue. Discount the price by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer concerning this.

I need to retain a conveyancing solicitor for remortgage conveyancing in Ham. I happened to discover a web site which seems to have the ideal answer If it is possible to get all the legals done via web that would be ideal. Should I be concerned? What are the potential pitfalls?

As usual with these online conveyancers you need to read ALL the small print - did you notice the extra charge for dealing with the mortgage?