We are purchasing a property and need a conveyancing solicitor in West Brompton who is on the Santander conveyancing panel. Can you recommend a local firm?

Our service is limited to being a directory service for firms who wish to be listed as being on the approved conveyancing panel for Santander . We don't recommend any particular firms conducting conveyancing in West Brompton.

Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my home can not be found. The lawyers who handled the conveyancing in West Brompton 10 years ago have long since closed. What are my next steps?

Assuming you have a registered title the information relating to your ownership will be documented by the Land Registry with a Title Number. It is possible to carry out a search at the Land Registry, find your property and obtain current copies of the Registered Entries for a small fee. Where the title is Leasehold then the Land Registry will usually hold a file duplicate of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be retrieved for a small fee.

I am looking for a ground for flat up to £235,500 and identified one near me in West Brompton I like with open areas and station in the vicinity, however it only has 51 years on the lease. There is not much else in West Brompton for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a lease with such few years left?

Should you require a mortgage the shortness of the lease will likely be problematic. Reduce the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you could request that they start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this matter.

I have been pointed in your direction by a couple of local property agents in West Brompton to choose a property lawyer using your seach tool. What’s the financial advantage for Estate Agents to market your services rather than alternative conveyancing organisations?

We refuse to give any commission for directing people our way. We thought it would be too underhand to pay a commission because a client could think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not getting any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.

My lawyer in West Brompton is asking me for identification documents stating that this is part of his obligations as a conveyancer on the lender Conveyancing panel. Am I being spun a yarn?

Anti-terror and anti-money-laundering rules require West Brompton conveyancing solicitors and licensed conveyancers to verify the identity of the person or body they are dealing with before they can accept their conveyancing business. The Client Care letter that you need to sign will no doubt confirm this. Your lawyer is right that the lender also require certain documents to be viewed. If a you refuse to provide ID verification documents, your conveyancer would not be able to accept instructions from you. Your lawyer also has obligations to obtain certain documents in accordance with the lender's UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements