My husband and I are hoping to buy a house in Honiton and are in fact using a Honiton conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Alliance & Leicester have this evening contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Honiton lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?

When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers 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 lender 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 bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Honiton solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

My wife and I are refinancing our flat in Honiton with Yorkshire BS. We have a son approaching twenty who lives at home. Our solicitor requested us to identify anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the apartment is repossessed. I have two questions (1) Is this document specific to the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we remortgaged 4 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?

First, rest assured that your Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel solicitor is doing the right thing as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to Yorkshire BS. This is solely used to protect Yorkshire BS if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave. It does not impact your son’s right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of Yorkshire BS had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.

Finally the sale completed on my house in Honiton last May yet the purchaser is e-mailing daily to moan that her conveyancer needs to hear from mine. What should my lawyer have done following completion?

Post completion of your disposal your solicitor is obliged to send the transfer documentation and all supplemental paperwork to the buyer’s conveyancer. Where relevant, your conveyancer must also confirm that the home loan has been repaid to the buyers conveyancers. There is unlikely to be post completion formalities just for conveyancing in Honiton.

Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my property are lost. The solicitors who conducted the conveyancing in Honiton 10 years ago no longer exist. Will I be able to sell the house?

These day there are copies made of almost everything, and your solicitor will know precisely where to find all the suitable paperwork so you may purchase or dispose of your property without any difficulty. If duplicates can’t be located, your conveyancer can arrange cover in the form of insurance or indemnities against possible claims on your property.

I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agency in Honiton where we have witnessed a few flat sales put at risk as a result of short leases. I have received inconsistent advice from local Honiton conveyancing firms. Can you confirm whether the seller of a flat can start the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the purchaser.

Honiton Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Questions you should ask before Purchasing

Are any of leasehold owners in dispute over their service charge payments? What is the length of the lease? Are there any major works in the planning that will likely increase the maintenance fees?