My partner and I are hoping to purchase a house in Hartford and are in fact using a Hartford conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Platform Home Loans Ltd have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Hartford solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?

Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent 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 Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your bank and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Hartford lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

Forgive me if this question is silly but I am unseasoned as FTB of a garden flat in Hartford. Do I pick up the keys to the house on the completion date from my solicitor? If this is the case, I will find a High Street conveyancing solicitor in Hartford?

On the day of completion you do not need to attend the conveyancers office in Hartford. Your solicitors will arrange to send the purchase money to the owner’s solicitors, and shortly after the monies have arrived, you will be able to collect the keys from the Estate Agents and start moving into the property. This tends to happen between 1 and 3pm.

We had selected conveyancing lawyers located in Hartford on the Principality solicitor panel. They are now charging me a separate fee for handling the Principality mortgage. Is this a supplemental conveyancing fee specified by Principality?

Provided it is contained in their Terms and Conditions or Quote then yes your property lawyer is entitled to charge a fee for this. The charge is not set by Principality but by your Hartford conveyancing practitioner. Numerous firms on the Principality panel will charge an ‘acting for lender’ fee but some practices incorporate it on their overall fee.

I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Hartford. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an advanced payment of £225. A couple of days later, the conveyancer contacted me to say that they were not on the Yorkshire BS 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 Yorkshire BS 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 buying a new build apartment in Hartford. Conveyancing is daunting at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. Can you give me some examples of some of the questions asked in new build legal work.

Set out below are examples of a selection of leasehold new build questions that you should expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Hartford

The Vendor must covenant to keep unoccupied units in good repair until long leases are granted therefore. Please provide evidence that the form of Lease proposed has been approved by the Land Registry. Where service of notices and proceedings can be at the property demised please confirm that this can be amended to include simultaneous services at the Lessees’ solicitors’ offices where the Lessee from time to time is not resident in the UK - such solicitors may be varied by notice in writing to the Landlord from time to time but otherwise will be as previously specified. Investor purchasers must be able to freely grant unsecured tenancies at market rents without requiring any consents.

I need to instruct a conveyancing lawyer in Hartford for my sale. Is it possible to review a solicitor's complaints history with the profession’s regulator?

You can review presented Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) determinations arising from inquisitions commenced on or after 1 January 2008. Visit Check a solicitor's record. To find records Pre 2008, or to check a firm's history, ring 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and 09.30 - 18.00 Tuesday. For callers outside the UK, use +44 (0)121 329 6800. The regulator may recorded call for training reasons.

Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Hartford. Before diving in I would like to find out the number of years remaining on the lease.

Assuming the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Hartford - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title. For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

I am the registered owner of a leasehold flat in Hartford, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Comparable properties in Hartford with an extended lease are worth £211,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 per annum. The lease finishes on 21st October 2092

With just 68 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £9,500 and £11,000 as well as professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure without more detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.