I am purchasing a property for cash in Caerwys. I have been living for the previous 20 years in Caerwys. Conveyancing searches are exorbitant. As I know the road and vicinity intimately should I not bother getting the solicitor to do all the conveyancing searches?

In the absence of a mortgage, then almost all of the Caerwys conveyancing searches are at your discretion. Your conveyancer will ’encourage you, no-doubt strongly, that you should have searches done, but she is duty bound to take that path of encouragement . Do consider; if you are intend to dispose of the house one day, it will be of relevance to your future buyer what the searches disclose. On occasion houses with day to day issues can still reveal unpredicted search results. A competent conveyancing solicitor in Caerwys will be able to give you some constructive advice concerning this.

This question may be naive but I am new to the process as FTB of a garden flat in Caerwys. Do I collect the keys to the property on the completion date from my lawyer? If so, I will find a High Street conveyancing solicitor in Caerwys?

There is no need to visit the lawyers office on the day of completion. Conveyancing lawyers for you will electronically transfer the completion advance to the seller's lawyers, and once they have received this, you will be able to receive the keys from the property Agents and move into your new home. Usually this happens early afternoon.

I had a mortgage agreed in principle with RBS. Caerwys conveyancing lawyers are instructed. What is the average time that one could expect to receive a mortgage offer from RBS?

There is no definitive answer here. Have RBS completed the valuation? Have you informed RBS as to your lawyers' details and checked that your lawyers are on the RBS conveyancing panel? It is not unusual for a mortgage offer to take a month to come through.

Having digested plenty of house buying guides, I note that it is considered advisable to get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local Caerwys solicitor - who is on the Nationwide conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. Is that normal?

Nationwide will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Nationwide 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. You may wish to consider appointing your own Caerwys surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller.

I am purchasing a new build house in Caerwys with the aid of help to buy. The sellers refused to budge the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The estate agent advised me not to tell my lawyer about this side-deal as it may adversely affect my loan with the lender. Should I keep quiet?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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 opted to have a survey carried out on a property in Caerwys in advance of retaining lawyers. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold overhang to the house. My surveyor advised that some lenders will refuse to issue a loan on such a property.

It varies from the lender to lender. Bank of Scotland has different instructions for example to Birmingham Midshires. Should you wish to call us we can check via the relevant mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Caerwys. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.

The property lawyers conducting our conveyancing in Caerwys has forwarded papers to review that show the property is unregistered with epitome documents. Why is the property not yet recorded at HMLR?

Much of the property in Caerwys is registered. An 'epitome' is basically a dossier of photocopies of documents affecting an unregistered title. Many Caerwys conveyancing lawyers will be able to handle such matters but where uncertainty prevails the usual advice these days seems to be for the vendor’s solicitor to deal with the registration formalities first and thereafter deal with the disposal - this this chain of events will cause a significant delay.