I am purchasing a newly built flat in Henfield and my solicitor is advising me that she is duty bound to the bank to disclose incentives from the seller. I am nearing the developer’s deadline to exchange contracts and I have no desire to prolong deal. is my lawyer playing by the book?

You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your lawyer. A precondition to being on a mortgage company panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.

In what way does my ID and proof of funds have anything to do with my conveyancing in Henfield? Why is this being asked of me?

In order to comply with Money Laundering Regulations any Henfield conveyancing firm will require evidence of your identity in all conveyancing transactions. This is normally dealt with by provision of a passport and an original bank statement or utility bill showing where you reside.

Under Money Laundering Regulations, conveyancing solicitors are obliged by law to check not simply the identity of conveyancing clients but also the origin of fund that they receive in respect of any matter. Refusal to disclose this will result in your lawyer terminating their relationship with you, as clearly this will cause a conflict between the set Regulations and a refusal to disclose.

Your conveyancers are duty bound to notify the appropriate authorities should they consider that any amounts received by them may contravene the Money Laundering Regulations.

I'm purchasing my first flat in Henfield with a loan from Yorkshire Building Society. The builders would not move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The property agent told me not reveal to my solicitor about the deal as it may impact my loan 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.

Due to the encouragement of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a house in Henfield prior to retaining solicitors. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold element to the property. The surveyor advised that some mortgage companies tend not issue a mortgage on a flying freehold house.

It varies from the lender to lender. Bank of Scotland has different instructions from Birmingham Midshires. Should you wish to call us we can investigate further with the relevant mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Henfield. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Henfield to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.

I am looking into buying my first house which is in Henfield and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Henfield. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Henfield area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?

Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Henfield. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found