My financial adviser has requested my Northop Hall lawyer’ panel reference for the HSBC conveyancing panel. Can you suggest how I obtain this. I have called my local Northop Hall branch but they cant find it on their system.

The sensible thing to do is ask for this information from your Northop Hall solicitor . Most Northop Hall law practices will retain a file or database of lender panel information which would include, if applicable, their conveyancing panel details for each mortgage company.

I have been told that property searches are a common cause of delay in Northop Hall conveyancing transactions. Is there any truth in this?

The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) published conclusions of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not figure within the common causes of delays during the legal transfer of property. Local searches are unlikely to feature in any delay in conveyancing in Northop Hall.

I am looking for a ground for flat up to £305k and found one close by in Northop Hall I like with open areas and transport links nearby, however it's only got 51 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Northop Hall for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?

If you require a home loan that many years will be a potential deal breaker. Discount the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you can request that they commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this matter.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Northop Hall with the aim of expediting the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Northop Hall can be bypassed if you instruct lawyers the minute your agents start advertising the property and ask them to put together the leasehold information needed by the buyers’ lawyers.
If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where a dispute is unsettled. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose particulars of the dispute to the buyers, but it is better to present the dispute as over as opposed to ongoing. If you are supposed to have a share in the Management Company, you should make sure that you are holding the original share certificate. Obtaining a duplicate share certificate can be a lengthy process and slows down many a Northop Hall conveyancing deal. Where a reissued share certificate is needed, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (where applicable) for this as soon as possible. A minority of Northop Hall leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the annual service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Northop Hall - Examples of Queries Prior to Purchasing

On the whole the outlay for major works are not incorporated into the maintenance charges, albeit that some managing agents in Northop Hall require leasehold owners to pay into a sinking fund and this is used to offset against major repairs or maintenance. The majority of Northop Hall leasehold properties will be liable to pay a service charge for the upkeep of the block levied on behalf of the landlord. Should you acquire the property you will have to pay this contribution, normally periodically throughout the year. This may vary from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built blocks. There will also be a ground rent for you to pay annual, ordinarily this is not a significant sum, say around £50-£100 but you need to enquire as on occasion it can be prohibitively expensive. Where a Northop Hall lease has fewer than eighty years it will impact the value of the flat. Check with your mortgage company that they are happy with residual term of the lease. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will probably require a lease extension at some point and you need to have some idea of what this would cost. Remember, in most cases you would need to own the residence for a couple of years in order to be legally able to carry out a lease extension.

Are Northop Hall conveyancing solicitors duty bound by the Law Society to issue transparent conveyancing figures?

Inbuilt into the Solicitors Code of Conduct are set rules and regulations as to how the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) allow solicitors to publicise their fees to clients.The Law Society have practice note giving advice on how to publicise transparent charges to avoid breaching any such rule. Practice notes are not legal advice issued by the Law Society and is not intended as the only standard of good practice a conveyancing solicitor should adhere to. The Practice Note does, nevertheless, constitute the Law Society’s perspective of acceptable practice for publicising conveyancing charges, and accordingly it’s a recommended read for any solicitor or conveyancer in Northop Hall or beyond.