I am purchasing a house without a mortgage in Lee. I have been residing for the last 20 years in Lee. Conveyancing searches are expensive. As I know the road and vicinity very well must I have all the conveyancing searches?

In the absence of a home loan, then almost all of the Lee conveyancing searches are optional. Your solicitor will try and steer you, perhaps strongly, that you should have searches completed, but he is duty bound to do this. One thing to bear in mind; if you are intend to sell the house at a future date, it may be of relevance to your prospective purchaser what the searches reveal. There are plenty of instances where properties with no practical issues can still throw up adverse search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in Lee will provide you some helpful guidance concerning this.

At what point does exchange of contracts happen for domestic conveyancing in Lee and am I required to attend the lawyers branch?

If you are in close proximity to our conveyancing solicitors in Lee you are welcome to come in to sign contracts. However, the firms we recommend provide a nationwide conveyancing service and provide as equally detailed and professional a job for you when communicating with you electronically. The executing of the sale agreement is not the critical part. A signed contract is just a prerequisite for the solicitor to address the formalities at the appropriate time, which is ordinarily shortly after signing. The procedure is nowadays normally dealt with by telephone and can be very rapid, although where a long "chain" is involved, since the process requires the relevant party's solicitor (not necessarily a conveyancing solicitor in Lee)to be in the office at the appropriate time.

I purchased a terraced Georgian property in Lee. Conveyancing practitioner represented me and Bank of Ireland. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are two entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold with the exact same address. I'd like to know for sure, how can I find out??

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 owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Lee and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with buyers. You can also check the situation with your conveyancing solicitor who conducted the conveyancing.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my garden flat in Lee. Conveyancing has not commenced, however I have recently received a quarterly service charge demand – what should I do?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should discharge the maintenance contribution as usual given that all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned as part of the financial calculations for completion monies, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

Following months of correspondence we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in Lee. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

in cases where there is a missing landlord or where there is dispute about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the LVT to calculate the premium.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement matter before the tribunal for a Lee premises is 18 Handen Road in April 2013. On 26 October 2012 District Judge Zimmels sitting at the Lambeth County Court made a Vesting Order that the Applicants be granted the right to acquire the freehold upon such terms and at such price determined by the LVT. The Tribunal arrived a figure of £39,535 as a valuation for the enfranchisement. This case related to 3 flats. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 69.05 years.

I have miscalculated my finances and am a couple of grand short a 10% deposit on my flat purchase in Lee , but I am keen proceed. What can I do?

You can accept a lesser deposit. Many property owners will accept a lesser deposit or even no deposit for a first time buyer or 100% mortgage. Be aware though that if you fail to complete you will still need to hand over a minimum of 10% of the purchase price regardless of how much deposit was agreed.

You can also agree a simultaneous exchange and completion as no deposit is required for this however neither party will be tied in until completion actually takes place and it can be risky if sellers change their mind at the last minute