My wife and I are planning to buy a property in Capel Curig and have appointed a Capel Curig conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Leeds Building Society have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Capel Curig lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?

If you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent the purchaser's lender. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer should contact your mortgage company and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Capel Curig lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

I am under pressure from the mortgagee in possession of a property in Capel Curig to sign contracts within four weeks. What can I do to expedite matters?

First, If you are under pressure for your conveyancing it is highly recommended that your solicitor is familiar with the area as they will make use of local contacts and insight. It is possible that they would have handled otherhouses in the same neighbourhood. Therefore consider using a Capel Curig conveyancing firm. In addition, double check that the lawyer is on the member panel. It is said that just under twenty per cent of Capel Curig conveyancing deals are delayed or jeopardised after discovering a buyer’s conveyancer was not on their banks member panel. In many cases this discovery resulted in the transaction being frustrated by an average of three weeks. It is estimated that this issue impacts approximately 100,000 home moves every year. Most Capel Curig conveyancing firms can not represent certain lenders so do check as early as possible.

My grandmother passed away last year and as sole heir and executor I was left the house in Capel Curig. The house had a small mortgage remaining of approximately £5k. I want to have the title changed into my name whilst I re-mortgage to Skipton, pay off the mortgage. Is this allowed?

Given you plan to refinance then Skipton will insist on your using a conveyancer on the Skipton conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your Skipton conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the Skipton mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.

I purchased a renovated Edwardian property in Capel Curig. Conveyancing lawyer represented me and Britannia. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw a couple of entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold under the matching address. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?

You need to assess 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 Capel Curig 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 purchasers. You can also enquire as to the situation with your conveyancing lawyer who carried out the work.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my basement flat in Capel Curig. Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed, however I have recently had a yearly service charge invoice – Do I pay up?

It best that you pay the service charge as usual given that all ground rent and maintenance invoices will be allotted as part of the financial calculations for completion monies, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the subsequent invoice date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

Capel Curig Leasehold Conveyancing - A selection of Queries before Purchasing

Please note if it is fewer than eighty years it will impact the value of the property. It is worth checking with your mortgage company that they are willing to go ahead with the loan given the lease term. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will almost definitely need a lease extension sooner rather than later and it is worth finding out what this will be. Remember, in most cases you would be required to have been the owner of the premises for two years in order to be eligible to extend the lease. The best form of lease arrangement is a share of the freehold. In this situation the lessees benefit from being in charge if their destiny and although a managing agent is often employed if the building is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent employed by the leaseholders. What prohibitions exist in the Capel Curig Lease?