It is 10 years ago since I acquired my house in Cinderford. Conveyancing lawyers have just been retained on the sale but I am unable to locate my title deeds. Is this a problem?

You need not be too concerned. Firstly the deeds may be kept by the mortgage company or they could be in the possession of the solicitor who acted in the purchase. Secondly in most cases the land will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you are the registered owner by your conveyancing solicitors procuring current official copies of the land registers. Nearly all conveyancing in Cinderford relates to registered property but in the unlikely event that your property is not registered it adds to the complexity but is resolvable.

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

There are many recorded licenced Conveyancers in Cinderford and Solicitor partnerships in Cinderford offering conveyancing It is important to make clear that both are supervised by regulatory bodies with both specialising in the legal work in transferring property. The two can deal with associated property related work such as remortgage conveyancing, lease extensions and transfer of equity conveyancing.

I am helping my mother sell her flat in Cinderford. Will the conveyancer arrange an EPC or should I organise this?

Following the abolition of HIPs, EPC’s was left as a compulsory part of moving house. An energy performance certificate needs to be to hand before the property is advertised. This is not a task that law firms ordinarily organise. Where you are using a Cinderford conveyancing practitioner they may be able to arrange energy assessments given their contacts with long established local energy assessors

After months of negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Cinderford. My financial adviser suggested a conveyancer. I paid an advanced payment of £225. Not long after, the solicitor contacted me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Clydesdale 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 Clydesdale 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 acquired my apartment on 11 June and the transaction details are still not registered. Need I be worried? My conveyancing solicitor in Cinderford advises it would be recorded inside ten days. Are properties in Cinderford uniquely lengthy to register?

There is nothing unique about conveyancing in Cinderford registration formalities. As opposed to being determined by geographic area, timescales can adjust according to the party submitting the application, whether it is in order and if the Land registry communicate with any third parties. At present approximately three quarters of submission are fully dealt with in less than three weeks but occasionally there can be protracted hold-ups. Registration occurs once the new owner is living at the property therefore registration formalities is not usually top priority yet where there is a degree of urgency associated with the registration then you or your conveyancer could communicate with the Registry to express the reasoning for the application to be prioritised.

Am I better off to use a Cinderford conveyancing lawyer who is local to the property I am hoping to buy? An old friend can handle the conveyancing however his firm is located 200miles away.

The primary upside of using a high street Cinderford conveyancing practice is that you can visit the firm to execute paperwork, hand in your ID and apply pressure on them where appropriate. Having local Cinderford know how is a benefit. However it's more important to get someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If if people you trust instructed your friend and they were content that must surpass using an unknown Cinderford conveyancing solicitor just because they are based in the area.

I've recently bought a leasehold flat in Cinderford. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

I purchased a 1 bedroom flat in Cinderford, conveyancing having been completed in 1996. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Similar properties in Cinderford with over 90 years remaining are worth £186,000. The ground rent is £55 yearly. The lease ends on 21st October 2077

With 53 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to range between £27,600 and £31,800 plus professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to provide the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive investigations. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other issues that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.