I am considering refinancing my house in Water Orton, does my lawyer have to be on the Clydesdale Solicitor panel?

There is nothing to stop you using your solicitor, but Clydesdale will insist on their interests being represented by a firm on their conveyancing panel. There is greater potential for delays and confusion with two solicitors involved, and it will undoubtedly be more expensive too.

My colleague suggested that where I am buying in Water Orton I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?

This is a search is usually included in the estimate for your Water Orton conveyancing searches. It is a large document of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out important information about Water Orton around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Water Orton Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data concerning Water Orton.

Me and my brother have a semi-detached Victorian property in Water Orton. Conveyancing practitioner represented me and Halifax. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw two entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold under the matching property. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?

You should assess 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 Water Orton and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with lenders. You can also enquire as to the position with your conveyancing solicitor who conducted the conveyancing.

I am buying a new build house in Water Orton with the aid of help to buy. The developers would not budge the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of fixtures and fittings instead. The sale representative suggested that I not to tell my conveyancer about this extras as it may affect my mortgage with the lender. 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.

I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £235,500 and identified one close by in Water Orton I like with amenity areas and railway links in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 49 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Water Orton suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a short lease?

Should you need a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term will be problematic. Discount the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor 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 with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor about this matter.