It is 10 years ago since I purchased my home in Addington. Conveyancing lawyers have now been retained on the sale but I am unable to find my title deeds. Will this jeopardise the sale?

Don’t worry too much. Firstly there is a chance that the deeds will be kept by your mortgage company or they could still be with the solicitor who handled the purchase. Secondly in most cases the property will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you own the property by your conveyancing solicitors procuring up to date copy of the land registers. Almost all conveyancing in Addington involves registered property but in the unlikely event that your home is not registered it is more problematic but is not insurmountable.

Please explain the implications if my solicitor is suspended from the Principality Conveyancing panel ahead of completing my conveyancing in Addington?

First, this is very unlikely to happen. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have to instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by a regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit at a cost.

I have been on the look out for a ground for flat up to £245,000 and identified one near me in Addington I like with open areas and station nearby, however it only has 61 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Addington in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a short lease?

Should you require a mortgage that many years will likely be problematic. Reduce the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the premises for at least 2 years you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor regarding this matter.

I have been pointed in your direction by a few estate agents in Addington to find a conveyancer using your seach tool. Is there a financial incentive for Estate Agents to offer your lawyers over and above another?

We refuse to give any financial incentive for sending work to this site. We found it would be just too difficult a fee as home movers will think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I getting any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.

We own a leasehold flat in Addington. Conveyancing was finished in 2011. I have heard that I should not allow the lease length get too short. What is the reasoning?

Addington domestic long term leases are for a prescribed period - normally 99 years when they commenced. However many appartments in Addington were built or converted in the 70’s80’s and so these leases now have fewer than eighty years remaining. This may sound like plenty of time however Banks, Building Societies and other mortgage lenders generally require leases to have a minimum of seventy five years unexpired to adequate security. This means that when you come to sell the property you will need a lease extension if you are getting close to 75 years. To optimize the marketability of your property you should be considering whether or not to extend your lease well in advance of selling the property. Please note that there are significant benefits to doing so before the lease hits 80 years as when the lease is less than 80 years the amount to be paid to extend starts to get a lot more expensive.