I am need of leasehold conveyancing for an apartment in a relatively new development (seven years old) in Shacklewell. Almost all the appartments have already been disposed of. Is it really necessary to order conveyancing searches as part of conveyancing in Shacklewell?

You would be putting yourself at risk in refusing to carrying out Shacklewell conveyancing searches. Without searches you have no clarity over flooding, environmental etc which may mean you walk away due to potential problems down the line. If you are buying without a mortgage there is no legal necessity to have them, but we would strongly advise in the strongest possible terms that you have them. If accelerating the process and driving down costs are top of your issues you should consider with your lawyer about the possibility of search insurance

Can your site be used to locate a Conveyancing solicitor in Shacklewell even if I’m not buying or disposing of a house, for instance where I intend to buy an office in Shacklewell with a loan from Alliance & Leicester ?

The service is mainly utilised to select residential conveyancing solicitors in Shacklewell but we have recorded at the bottom of this page a few Shacklewell commercial conveyancing firms. You will need to make contact with the firm directly to establish if they can also act for Alliance & Leicester

My grandfather passed away last year and as sole heir and executor I was left the house in Shacklewell. The house had a relatively small loan remaining of approximately £8000. I want to have the title changed into my name whilst I re-mortgage to Nationwide, pay off the mortgage. Is this possible?

Where you plan to refinance then Nationwide will require that you use a conveyancer on the Nationwide conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your Nationwide conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the Nationwide mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.

We have agreed to purchase a house in Shacklewell. A rare aspect is that the roof has a solar panel. Solicitors conducting should look into this right? Will my lender HSBC be concerned?

As you are obtaining a mortgage with HSBC your lawyer must follow the formal instructions outlined in Section two of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for HSBC. The CML Handbook stipulates minimum provisions for solar panel roof-space leases, and lawyers are required to report to HSBC where a lease fails to comply with these specifications. The requirements relate to the installation of panels on properties nationwide and is not isolated to Shacklewell.

I'm in the throws of looking at flats in Shacklewell and I am about to put in an offer. Is it wise to have my conveyancing practitioner on ‘stand by’? I will be getting a home loan with UBS.

You should start obtaining conveyancing quotes from solicitors ASAP. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and forward their contact information on to the EA. Given that you are obtaining a mortgage with UBS, make sure you remember to check that your lawyer is on the UBS conveyancing panel.

After shopping around on the internet I have found a Shacklewell conveyancer having made sure that they are on the RBS conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?

RBS will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually RBS will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. You may wish to consider appointing your own Shacklewell surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller.

We own a leasehold flat in Shacklewell. Conveyancing was finalised in five years ago. I have been told that I mustn’t let the the remaining lease term to get too short. What is the reasoning?

Shacklewell residential long term leases are for a prescribed period - often ninety nine years when they commenced. However many flats in Shacklewell were built or converted 35 or more years ago and so these leases now have less than 80 years left to run. This may sound like a long time but Banks, Building Societies and other mortgage lenders generally require leases to have a minimum of seventy five years left to be mortgageable. This means that when you come to sell the property you will need a lease extension if you are approaching 75 years. To maximise your property value you should be thinking about whether to extend your lease long before you come to sell it. You should note that there are significant benefits to doing so before the lease reaches even eighty years as when the lease falls below eighty years the amount to be paid to extend starts to increase.