Do lawyers request an advanced payment when it comes to conveyancing in Hucknall?

If you are buying a property in Hucknall your lawyer will request that you place them with funds to cover the search fees. This will be the total of the cost of the Local Authority Search. If any down payment is payable against the sale price then this should be required immediately in advance of exchange of contracts. The closing balance that is due should be sent to your lawyer a couple of days prior to the completion date.

We have a mortgage agreed in principle with Principality. Hucknall conveyancing solicitors have been instructed. How long does it take for Principality to send the offer to the conveyancing practitioner?

Some lenders take longer than others. Have Principality done the valuation? Have you advised Principality as to your lawyers' details and checked that your lawyers are on the Principality conveyancing panel? Sometimes it can take as long as six weeks for a mortgage offer to be issued.

I have paid off my mortgage with Coventry BS. I assume I don't need a Hucknall property lawyer on the Coventry BS panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.

If you have finished paying off your Coventry BS mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Coventry BS mortgage from the register. Coventry BS, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:

1. but are not moving to another property
2. where Coventry BS has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
3. Coventry BS has instructed the Land Registry to do so

After shopping around on the internet I have found a Hucknall conveyancing practitioner having made sure that they are on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?

Kent Reliance will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Kent Reliance will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your solicitor will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Hucknall postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Kent Reliance, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Hucknall.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a ground for flat up to £245,000 and identified one close by in Hucknall I like with amenity areas and transport links nearby, the downside is that it only has 52 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Hucknall suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a lease with such few years left?

Should you need a home loan that many years will be an issue. Discount the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing proprietor has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you could ask them to start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor about this.

My husband and I may need to let out our Hucknall ground floor flat for a while due to taking a sabbatical. We used a Hucknall conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time seek any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

Notwithstanding that your previous Hucknall conveyancing lawyer is no longer around you can check your lease to check if it allows you to sublet the premises. The rule is that if the lease is non-specific, subletting is allowed. There may be a precondition that you must obtain permission from your landlord or some other party prior to subletting. This means you not allowed to sublet without first obtaining permission. The consent should not be unreasonably turned down. If your lease prohibits you from subletting the property you will need to ask your landlord if they are willing to waive this restriction.

I invested in buying a ground floor flat in Hucknall, conveyancing was carried out July 2006. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Comparable properties in Hucknall with a long lease are worth £221,000. The ground rent is £50 per annum. The lease ceases on 21st October 2095

With 70 years remaining on your lease the likely cost is going to span between £9,500 and £11,000 as well as legals.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more comprehensive due diligence. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other concerns that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.

Two months into a sale of a flat in Hucknall. Conveyancing is fine but we have been asked to pay a fortune by the freeholder. So far we have paid £225 for a leasehold management pack and then another £118 for responses to questions supplied by the purchaser's conveyancing practitioner.

Your solicitor will not have any say over the level of the fee for this information however the typical costs for the information for Hucknall leasehold property is £350. When it comes to Hucknall conveyancing transactions it is usual for the owner to pay for these charges. The landlord or their agents are not duty bound to answer such questions although many will be willing to do so - albeit often at high prices out of proportion to the work involved. Unfortunately there is no law that requires fixed fees for administrative tasks. Neither is there any prescriptive time frame by which they are obliged to issue the information.