My husband and I are looking to acquire a house in The Ridgeway and have instructed a The Ridgeway conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Barclays Direct have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our The Ridgeway solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?

If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the purchaser's lender. 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 property lawyer should contact your lender and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred The Ridgeway lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

Me and my brother have a terraced Victorian property in The Ridgeway. Conveyancing solicitor represented me and Godiva Mortgages Ltd. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are a couple of entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold with the exact same address. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?

You need to review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for 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 The Ridgeway and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they mortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with lenders. You can also check the situation with the conveyancing practitioner who conducted the purchase.

I'm buying my first flat in The Ridgeway with a mortgage from Godiva Mortgages Ltd. The builders would not move on the price so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The sale representative advised me not disclose to my lawyer about this side-deal as it would adversely affect my loan with the bank. Is this normal?.

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.

Should I be wary about brokers that I am dealing with are encouraging me to use a factory type conveyancing firm rather than a High Street The Ridgeway conveyancing practice?

As is the case with many professional services, often recommendations from connections can be extremely useful or valuable. But there are numerous players in a conveyancing matter; estate agents, financial adviser and mortgage companies may put forward lawyers to select. On occasion these lawyers might be known to one of the organisations as being good in their field, but occasionally there might be a financial incentive behind the recommendation. You have the discretion to appoint your preferred conveyancer. However, bear in mind that many lenders specify a panel list of solicitors you are obliged to use for the lender related work in your house move.

Back In 2008, I bought a leasehold house in The Ridgeway. Conveyancing and Chelsea Building Society mortgage went though with no issue. A letter has just been received from someone claiming to own the freehold. It included a demand for arrears of ground rent dating back to 1996. The conveyancing solicitor in The Ridgeway who acted for me is not around. Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is contact the Land Registry to make sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. It is not necessary to instruct a The Ridgeway conveyancing firm to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the legitimate landlord, under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for recovery of ground rent is six years.

I have given up trying to purchase the freehold in The Ridgeway. Can this matter be resolved via the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal?

Absolutely. We can put you in touch with a The Ridgeway conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a The Ridgeway property is Various @ Colombus Square in January 2012. the Tribunal calculated the premiums to be paid for new leases for each of the flats in Mariners Walk to be £3822 and the premium to be paid for the new lease of 2 Knights Court to be £4439. This case was in relation to 13 flats. The number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 76 years.