As a FTB what is the most important advice you can give me concerning purchase conveyancing in Hungerford?

Not many law firms shout this from the rooftops but conveyancing in Hungerford or throughout England and Wales is often a confrontational process. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there is plenty of room for friction between you and others involved in the ownership transfer. For instance, the vendor, estate agent and even potentially the lender. Appointing a solicitor for your conveyancing in Hungerford should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONE party in the process whose interest is to look after your best interests and to protect you.

Every so often a third party with a vested interest will attempt to persuade you that it is in your interests to do things their way. For instance, the selling agent may claim to be helping by claiming that your lawyer is wrong. Or your mortgage broker may advise you to do take action that is against your conveyancers guidance. You should always trust your lawyer above all other parties when it comes to the legal transfer of property.

We're in Hungerford, First time buyers buying with a mortgage (lender is Skipton , and our lawyer is on the Skipton conveyancing panel). How long should the conveyancing process take?

The fact that your lawyer is on the Skipton conveyancing panel is a help. It would almost certainly delay matters if they were not. However, no conveyancer should guarantee a timeframe for your conveyancing, due to third parties outside of your control such as delays caused by lenders,conveyancing search providers or by the other side’s solicitors. The time taken is often determined by the number of parties in a chain.

Have just purchased a repossessed house at auction in Hungerford. Conveyancing is necessary. What happens now?

Given that you have now legally bound yourself to purchase you must hire the services of a conveyancing lawyer quickly as you will have a tight a drop dead date to complete the transaction. All auction property should have a corresponding auction pack. This will include most,if not all of the documents that your conveyancer requires. If you have purchased leasehold property the conveyancing papers may contain a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and other conveyancing paperwork pertinent to a leasehold property. You must hand this to the lawyer instructed by you as soon as possible. Do make sure that your finances are in place to complete the transaction on the set completion date.

My wife and I buying a 3 bedroom semi in Hungerford. Our aim is to carry out an extension to the side at the property.Will legal investigations on the property include checks to determine if these works are prohibited?

Your property lawyer should review the deeds as conveyancing in Hungerford will on occasion identify restrictions in the title deeds which restrict certain alterations or necessitated the consent of another owner. Certain additions require local authority planning permissions and approval under the building regulations. Some locations are designated conservation areas and special planning restrictions apply which often prevent or impact extensions. It would be prudent to check these issues with a surveyor ahead of any purchase.

Is it the case that all Hungerford solicitors on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel are governed by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority?

As a firm of solicitors, in order to be on the Leeds Building Society approved list of solicitors they would need to be regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. The majority of mortgage companies do allow licenced conveyancers on their panel and in such a situation the practice would be regulated by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.

Am I best advised to go with a Hungerford conveyancing solicitor based in the location that I am hoping to buy? I have an old university friend who can handle the legal formalities however they are based a couple of hundredkilometers drive away.

The primary upside of using a local Hungerford conveyancing firm is that you can visit the firm to sign documents, hand in your identification documents and pester them where appropriate. Having local Hungerford 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 the majority were impressed that must trump using an unfamiliar Hungerford conveyancing solicitor just because they are round the corner.

I own a leasehold flat in Hungerford. Conveyancing was completed in 2010. I have heard that I should not let the lease length get too short. Is this right?

Hungerford domestic long term leases are for a prescribed term - usually ninety nine years when they are first granted. However many appartments in Hungerford were built or converted 30 or more years ago and so such leases now have under 80 years remaining. This may seem like a long time but Banks, Building Societies and other mortgage lenders tend to need leases to have at least 75 years unexpired to adequate security. This means that when you come to sell the property you will need to extend the term of your lease if you are nearing seventy five years. To optimize the saleability of your property you should be thinking about whether or not to extend your lease well in advance of selling the property. Furthermore advantages to taking action before the lease reaches even eighty years as when the lease falls below 80 years the premium you have to pay to extend starts to get a lot more expensive.