I am buying a property without a mortgage in Porthleven. I have lived for the last twelve years in Porthleven. Conveyancing searches are a lot of money. As I know the road and vicinity intimately should I not bother getting the solicitor to do all the conveyancing searches?

Provided that you do not need a home loan, then all but one or two of the Porthleven conveyancing searches are non-obligatory. Your solicitor will try and sway you, no-doubt strongly, that you should have searches completed, but he is duty bound to take that path of guidance. Do take into account; if you are likely to dispose of the house one day, it may be of interest to your future buyer what the searches disclose. There are plenty of instances where houses with functional issues can still show up detrimental search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in Porthleven will be able to give you some constructive advice here.

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

Porthleven conveyancing solicitors as well as nationwide property practitioners accross the UK have an obligation under money laundering regulations to verify the ID of any client in order to ensure that clients are who they say they are.

Conveyancing clients are required to produce two forms of certified ID; proof of ID (usually a Passport or Driving Licence) and evidence of address (typically a Bank Statement less than 3 months old).

Proof of the origin of funds is also necessary in accordance with the money laundering laws as conveyancers have a duty to check that the monies you are utilising to purchase a property (whether it be the deposit for exchange or the total purchase monies where you are a cash purchaser) has originated from an acceptable source (such as employment savings) as opposed to the product of illegitimate activity.

My wife and I are buying a flat in Porthleven. It might be a silly question but how we can trust a solicitor? On completion day we will need to put funds into their account. What is the protection we have from them run away with our deposit?

Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.

I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Porthleven. My mortgage broker recommended their conveyancers. I paid an on account payment of £150. A couple of days later, the property lawyer called me to say that they were not on the Coventry BS 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 Coventry BS 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.

After shopping around on the internet I have found a Porthleven lawyer having checked that they are on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?

Virgin Money will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Virgin Money will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your conveyancer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Porthleven postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Virgin Money, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Porthleven.

Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly identified during conveyancing in Porthleven?

Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Porthleven. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’

I opted to have a survey carried out on a property in Porthleven ahead of appointing solicitors. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold overhang to the house. My surveyor advised that some lenders will not give a mortgage on such a premises.

It varies from the lender to lender. Lloyds has different requirements for example to Nationwide. If you contact us we can look into this further via the relevant mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Porthleven. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.