I am purchasing a house mortgage free in Nantwich. I have lived for the previous 15 years in Nantwich. Conveyancing searches are exorbitant. As I know the road and vicinity intimately should I not bother getting the solicitor to do all the conveyancing searches?

Provided that you do not need a mortgage, then all but one or two of the Nantwich conveyancing searches are optional. Your lawyer will ’encourage you, no-doubt strongly, that you should have searches completed, but he is duty bound to do this. One thing to consider; if you are going to sell the house one day, it could be of interest to your future purchaser what the searches contain. There are plenty of instances where houses with apparent issues can still throw up unfavourable search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in Nantwich will provide you some helpful advice here.

I own a semi-detached Victorian house in Nantwich. Conveyancing lawyer represented me and Norwich and Peterborough Building Society. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and I saw two entries: the first freehold, the second leasehold under the exact same address. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?

You need to assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be 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 Nantwich and other areas of 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 lenders. You can also check the situation with your conveyancing lawyer who conducted the conveyancing.

I am purchasing a new build house in Nantwich with the aid of help to buy. The sellers refused to reduce the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of additionals instead. The estate agent suggested that I not reveal to my solicitor about this side-deal as it would put at risk my loan with Nationwide Building Society. Is this normal?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.

Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.

Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.

Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold element on a property I have offered on two weeks back in what was supposed to be a quick, no chain conveyancing. Nantwich is the location of the property. Can you shed any light on this issue?

Flying freeholds in Nantwich are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Nantwich you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds thoroughly. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Nantwich may ascertain that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold premises.

I work for a busy estate agent office in Nantwich where we have witnessed a number of leasehold sales put at risk due to short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Nantwich conveyancing firms. Could you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can initiate the lease extension process for the buyer?

As long as the seller has been the owner 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 proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, 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 buyer.

Nantwich Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries Prior to Purchasing

The prefered form of lease arrangement is a share of the freehold. In this arrangement the leaseholders have being in charge if their destiny and notwithstanding that a managing agent is often employed if the building is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants. Does the lease contain onerous restrictions?