I am helping my sister sell her flat in Pentwyn. Will the conveyancing solicitor arrange the EPC or should I organise this?

Following the abolition of HIPs, energy performance certificates became a compulsory part of selling a house. An energy performance certificate needs to be commissioned in advance of the property being placed on the market. This is not as aspect of the sale process that lawyers ordinarily organise. If you are instructing a Pentwyn conveyancing practitioner they might help arrange EPC’s given their relationships with long established local accredited person

I'm in the process of looking at flats in Pentwyn and I am now considering a potential offer. Is it premature to have a solicitor in place? I intend to finance via a home loan with Clydesdale.

It would be advisable to instigate your search sooner rather than later. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and pass their contact information on to the estate agent. Given that you are getting a mortgage with Clydesdale, ask your prospective lawyers if they are on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel otherwise they can't do the mortgage legal work.

After weeks of negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in Pentwyn. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their conveyancer. I paid an on account payment of £150. A couple of days later, the conveyancer called me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the HSBC conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?

You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the HSBC panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.

I got the keys to my apartment on 1 May and my personal details is not yet on the land registry website. Should I be concerned? My conveyancing solicitor in Pentwyn expressed confidence that it will be formalised inside ten days. Are properties in Pentwyn uniquely lengthy to register?

As far as conveyancing in Pentwyn is concerned, registration is no faster or slower than anywhere else in England and Wales. Rather than based on location, timescales can vary depending on who lodges the application, whether it is in order and if the Land registry need to notify any third persons or bodies. At present in the region of 80% of submission are completed in less than three weeks but occasionally there can be longer hold-ups. Historically registration takes place once the purchaser has moved in to the premises so an expedited registration is not always top priority but if there is a degree of urgency associated with the registration then you or your solicitor must speak with the land registry and explain the circumstances.

I am purchasing my first flat in Pentwyn with a loan from Barclays Direct. The developers refused to budge the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The estate agent advised me not disclose to my conveyancer about the deal as it could adversely affect my loan with Barclays Direct. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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.

I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £235,500 and found one near me in Pentwyn I like with open areas and station nearby, the downside is that it's only got 61 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Pentwyn suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a short lease?

If you need a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be problematic. Reduce the price by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you may ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor regarding this.

Should I choose a Pentwyn conveyancing solicitor in close proximity to the house I am purchasing? An old friend can perform the conveyancing however her office is over three hundred kilometers drive away.

The primary upside of using a high street Pentwyn conveyancing firm is that you can pop in to sign documents, deliver your ID and apply pressure on them if necessary. They will also have local insight which is a bonus. That being said it's more important to get someone that will do a good and efficient job. If you know people who used your friend and they were content that should surpass using an unfamiliar Pentwyn conveyancing lawyer solely due to them being local.