I am expecting a offer of a home loan from Lloyds. I intend to use a Licensed Conveyancer in Bradley Stoke. Does the Lloyds Solicitor panel include Licensed Conveyancers?

The Lloyds conveyancing panel is, like many other lenders, represented by the Council or Mortgage Lenders or Building Society Association, open to Licensed Conveyancers regulated by the CLC.

The Bradley Stoke conveyancing lawyers that I appointed last week on my purchase in Bradley Stoke have without warning closed. They were on acting for me because I had to have a solicitor on the TSB conveyancing panel and my family Bradley Stoke lawyer was not. I paid them 275 plus VAT in advance. What should be my next steps?

Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the TSB conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors should be in a position to assist.

My partner and I have organised the release of further monies on our mortgage from Clydesdale as we want to carry out renovations to our house in Bradley Stoke. Are we obliged to appoint a nearby Bradley Stoke solicitor on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel to deal with the paperwork?

Clydesdale don't usually instruct a member of their conveyancing panel to handle such a matter. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel.

I recently had an offer agreed on an apartment in Bradley Stoke. My financial adviser suggested a conveyancing practitioner. I paid an upfront payment of £200. A few days later, the property lawyer called me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Principality 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 Principality 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 what feels like an age I have had an offer on a maisonette in Bradley Stoke accepted, the vendors do however have an associated purchase. The owners have placed an offer on a property, however it’s not yet tied up, and are looking at other flats in the pipeline. I have chosen a high street conveyancing solicitor in Bradley Stoke. What do I do now? When do I get the mortgage application with Nottingham started?

It is normal to have anxieties where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket too early (mortgage application is approx one thousand pounds, then survey, Bradley Stoke conveyancing search fees, etc). The first thing to do is check that your conveyancing practitioner is on the Nottingham approved list. Regarding the next stages this very much depends on the specifics of your transaction, attraction to this property and on the state of the market. During a rising market many buyers would apply for a home loan with Nottingham and arrange for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they request their conveyancing practitioner to press on with searches.

I have a terraced Edwardian property in Bradley Stoke. Conveyancing practitioner represented me and Lloyds TSB Bank. I did a free Land Registry search last week and there are a couple of entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold under the matching property. I'd like to know for sure, how can I find out??

You need to read 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 proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Bradley Stoke and other locations in 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 buyers. You can also question the position with the conveyancing practitioner who conducted the work.

Back In 2001, I bought a leasehold flat in Bradley Stoke. Conveyancing and Virgin Money mortgage are in place. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the reversionary interest in the property. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1997. The conveyancing solicitor in Bradley Stoke who previously acted has now retired. Do I pay?

The first thing you should do is make enquiries of HMLR to make sure that this person is in fact the registered owner of the freehold reversion. It is not necessary to incur the fees of a Bradley Stoke conveyancing practitioner to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for less than a fiver. You should note that regardless, even if this is the legitimate freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I bought a garden flat in Bradley Stoke, conveyancing formalities finalised April 1996. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Similar properties in Bradley Stoke with a long lease are worth £176,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 invoiced every year. The lease expires on 21st October 2102

With only 80 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £8,600 and £9,800 plus costs.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to advice on a more accurate figure without more detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.