It is a dozen years since I purchased my property in Amesbury. Conveyancing solicitors have just been retained on the sale but I can't find my title deeds. Will this jeopardise the sale?

Don’t worry too much. First there is a chance that the deeds will be kept by the lender or they could be archived with the conveyancers who handled the purchase. Secondly the likelihood is that the title will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you own the property by your conveyancing lawyers procuring up to date copy of the land registers. Nearly all conveyancing in Amesbury involves registered property but in the rare situation where your home is not registered it is more of a problem but is resolvable.

My wife and I own a terraced Edwardian house in Amesbury. Conveyancing lawyer represented me and Leeds Building Society. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and I saw two entries: the first freehold, the second leasehold under the matching address. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?

You should review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Amesbury and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they sell they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with lenders. You can also question the position with your conveyancing practitioner who carried out the work.

I am buying a new build house in Amesbury with the aid of help to buy. The sellers would not budge the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of fixtures and fittings instead. The sale representative advised me not inform my conveyancer about the extras as it will impact my loan with Norwich and Peterborough Building Society. Is this normal?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder 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.

I have been on the look out for a flat up to £305k and identified one close by in Amesbury I like with amenity areas and station in the vicinity, however it only has 49 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Amesbury for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?

If you need a home loan the shortness of the lease will likely be a potential deal breaker. Reduce the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months 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 about this matter.

The property lawyers handling our conveyancing in Amesbury has forwarded papers to review that reveal that the property is unregistered with epitome documents. Is it not the case that all properties in Amesbury are registered?

Whilst the vast majorities of properties in Amesbury are now registered with the Land Registry there are still a few that remain unregistered. Any property in Amesbury that has been remortgaged since the late 1980’s will have been registered at the HM Land Registry under the compulsory ‘first registration’ scheme. However, if a Amesbury property has not changed hands in that time then it’s likely the old fashioned title deeds will be the only evidence of ownership.Plenty of Amesbury conveyancing practitioners should be able to handle such matters but if any uncertainty prevails the prevailing guidance nowadays seems to be for the current owners to undertake the registration formalities first and then deal with the dispose of the property to the purchaser - this undoubtedly cause a significant delay.