Have just purchased a repossessed house at auction in Llandough. Conveyancing is needed. What is next?

Having for all intents and purposes signed on the dotted line you will need to hire the services of a conveyancing solicitor quickly as you are facing a pending deadline in which to complete the deal. All auction property will have a bespoke auction pack. This will likely include the copy title deeds, local authority and drainage searches. If you have purchased leasehold premises the legal pack may contain a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and associated conveyancing documentation relating to leasehold premises. You must hand this to your appointed conveyancing solicitor at the earliest opportunity. You also need to ensure that that you have the requisite funding in order to complete on the on the contractual date .

Are all Llandough Conveyancing Quality Solicitors on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel?

Some major banks and building societies now use CQS as the kick off point for Panel membership such as HSBC and Santander. The Law Society’s CQS membership however is no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. That being said,the CML have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for solicitors wishing to remain on their approved list of firms.

I was told two weeks ago that my mortgage has been agreed to by Santander. Is it usual for Santander to only issue the offer once my solicitor in Llandough is approved on their conveyancing panel? Santander have asked my solicitor to see a copy of their PI Insurance.

Mortgage companies tend not to not issue an offer until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Santander to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Santander conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.

I decided to have a survey done on a house in Llandough prior to appointing lawyers. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold element to the property. Our surveyor advised that some lenders will refuse to give a loan on a flying freehold premises.

It varies from the lender to lender. Lloyds has different instructions from Halifax. If you e-mail us we can look into this further via the appropriate lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Llandough. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Llandough to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.

My partner has urged me to instruct his conveyancers in Llandough. Do I take his advice?

There are no two ways about it the ideal way to select a conveyancing practitioner is to seek feedback from friends or family who have used the conveyancer that you are considering.

I am employed by a long established estate agent office in Llandough where we see a number of flat sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Llandough conveyancing firms. Can you confirm whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done prior to, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is 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.

I own a garden flat in Llandough, conveyancing was carried out in 2010. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Comparable properties in Llandough with a long lease are worth £191,000. The ground rent is £55 charged once a year. The lease expires on 21st October 2079

You have 54 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £31,400 and £36,200 plus costs.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide the actual costs in the absence of detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.

My partner is buying a basement flat in Llandough. He has received a fee estimate by the solicitor connected to the selling agents totaling £1275 . It was eight years ago I sold and bought a property and the fee was £500. Have fees really escalated to that extent?

What does the conveyancing estimate include? Is it just for the legal fees, or what you will be paying in total (for example Llandough searches, land registry fees, etc)