Finally the sale completed on my house in Milton Keynes last May yet the purchaser is e-mailing me to moan that her conveyancer is waiting to hear from mine. What are the post completion sale legalities following completion?

Following your house sale your conveyancer should forward the transfer deeds and all of the paperwork to the purchaser's solicitors. Depending on the transaction, your solicitor must also confirm that the mortgage has been redeemed to the buyers solicitors. There are no post completion tasks unique to conveyancing in Milton Keynes.

I am remortgaging my home in Milton Keynes, does my lawyer have to be on the Nottingham Conveyancing panel?

In theory, you could use a solicitor that is not on the Nottingham conveyancing panel, but Nottingham would require one of their panel solicitors to be instructed to act in their interests, and you'd have to pay for this - so most people instruct a panel solicitor. It's also easier, as otherwise you'd have to deal with two solicitors for the same conveyancing matter.

A colleague recommended that where I am purchasing in Milton Keynes I should ask my conveyancer to execute a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?

This is a search is occasionally included in the estimate for your Milton Keynes conveyancing searches. It is a large document of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out important information about Milton Keynes around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Milton Keynes Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data regarding Milton Keynes.

Is it possible to swap conveyancer as I need to select a firm on the Virgin Money conveyancing list. I was using a high street conveyancing solicitor in Milton Keynes round the corner but he is not accepted by Virgin Money

We will our best to assist in finding you a conveyancing solicitor in Milton Keynes on the Virgin Money panel. Please note that the law firms that we on the directory do not pay us a referral fee if you instruct them and are under regulation of the SRA who oversee all conveyancing solicitors in Milton Keynes. In utilising search facility on this page, you can compare costs for conveyancing solicitors in Milton Keynes and throughout England and Wales.

Last July I purchased a leasehold property in Milton Keynes. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

Milton Keynes Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries Prior to Purchasing

It would be prudent to find out as much as you can about the managing agents as they can either make living at the property much easier or problematic. As the proprietor of a leasehold property you will be at the mercy of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to practical matters like the cleanliness of the common parts. You should not be afraid to ask prospective neighbours what they think of them. On a final note, be sure you discover the dates that the maintenance charges are due to the managing agents and specifically what it includes. Does the lease have more than 80 years left? Are there any major works in the planning that could add a premium to the maintenance costs?