My fiance and I are hoping to purchase a home in Prescot and are in fact using a Prescot conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Chelsea Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Prescot lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?

When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your mortgage company and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Prescot lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.

My partner and I have lately purchased a property in Prescot. We have since encountered a number of issues with the property which we believe were omitted in the conveyancing searches. What action can we take? What searches should? have been ordered for conveyancing in Prescot?

The question is not clear as to the nature of the problems and if they are relate to conveyancing in Prescot. Conveyancing searches and investigations initiated during the legal transfer of property are supposed to help avoid problems. As part of the process, a property owner fills in a form referred to as a Seller’s Property Information Form. If the information is misleading, then you may have a claim against the seller for any losses that you have suffered. The survey should have identified any problems with the structure of the property. Assuming a detailed survey was carried out and the issues were not identified, you may have a claim against the surveyor. However, if you did not have a full survey, you may be responsible for fixing any defects that have now been noted. We would always encourage buyers to take every possible step to ensure they are completely aware of the condition of a property before purchase regardless of whether they are buying in Prescot.

Can your site be used to recommend a Conveyancing solicitor in Prescot even where I’m not buying or disposing of a house, for example where I intend to acquire an office in Prescot with a loan from Halifax?

Our search tool is predominantly used to find residential conveyancing solicitors in Prescot but we have set out at the bottom of this page some Prescot commercial conveyancing firms. You will need to make contact with the company directly to establish if they can also act for Halifax

Do I choose a Licenced Conveyancer or Solicitor for conveyancing in Prescot?

There are many recorded licenced Conveyancers in Prescot and Solicitor practices in Prescot to choose from We would stress that the two are supervised by regulatory bodies with both specialising in the legal work in transferring property. The two can handle other property legal work such as remortgage conveyancing, enfranchisement and transfer of equity conveyancing.

I am the only recipient of my late father’s will and I have everything in my name alone, including the house in Prescot. The Prescot property was put into my name in December. I now wish to sell up. I understand that there is a CML 6 month 'rule', meaning my proprietorship will be treated the same way as if I'd bought the property in December. Do I have to wait 6 months to sell?

The CML handbook instructs conveyancers to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." By the strict wording you might be caught by that. Some mortgage companies would take a practical view as this clause is chiefly there to identify subsales or the quick reselling of property.

After months of negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in Prescot. My mortgage broker recommended their conveyancers. I paid an advanced payment of £175. A couple of days later, the conveyancer called me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Principality 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 Principality 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 work for a reputable estate agent office in Prescot where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Prescot conveyancing firms. Can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease 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 sit tight for 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 simultaneously with 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 am the registered owner of a basement flat in Prescot, conveyancing formalities finalised 9 years ago. How much will my lease extension cost? Equivalent properties in Prescot with over 90 years remaining are worth £176,000. The ground rent is £50 charged once a year. The lease expires on 21st October 2075

You have 50 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £31,400 and £36,200 plus costs.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs without more detailed due diligence. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.