My solicitor has uncovered a a legal deficiency with the lease for the property we are buying in Cholsey. The other side have put forward defective title insurance as a workaround. We are content with insurance and will cover the costs. Our lawyer has advised that he must be satisfied that the lender is willing to move forward with this solution. Who is the client here, us or the mortgage company ?

Regardless of the fact that you have a mortgage offer from the bank does not mean to say that the property will meet their requirements for the purposes of a mortgage. Your lawyer has to ensure that the lease has to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements. You and the mortgage company are the client. These conveyancing instructions have to be complied with.

It is is a decade since I bought my home in Cholsey. Conveyancing solicitors have recently been retained on the sale but I can't locate the title documents. Will this jeopardise the sale?

You need not be too concerned. Firstly the deeds may be retained by the mortgage company or they could still be with the lawyers who oversaw the purchase. Secondly in all probability the property will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you are the registered owner by your conveyancing solicitors obtaining up to date copy of the land registers. The vast majority of conveyancing in Cholsey relates to registered property but in the rare situation where your home is not registered it adds to the complexity but is not insurmountable.

I am expecting a AIP from Skipton this week so we can work out what to offer on a property we like as otherwise we are dependent on web based calculators (which aren't taking into account credit checks etc). Do Skipton recommend any Cholsey solicitors on the Skipton conveyancing panel, or is it better to find our own lawyer?

You will need to appoint Cholsey solicitors independently although you'll need to choose one on the Skipton conveyancing panel. The solicitor represents both you and Skipton through the process.

I recently had an offer agreed on a house in Cholsey. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an advanced payment of £200. Soon after, the property lawyer called me to say that they were not on the Nationwide 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 Nationwide 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.

I have instructed a Cholsey lawyer having made sure that they are on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?

Coventry BS will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Coventry BS 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. Your solicitor will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Cholsey postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Coventry BS, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Cholsey.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Cholsey from the point of view of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Cholsey can be reduced where you appoint lawyers the minute your agents start marketing the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the buyers’ conveyancers.
A minority of Cholsey leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their solicitors. The majority of freeholders or managing agents in Cholsey charge for providing management packs for a leasehold home. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management information sought as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent reason for frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Cholsey. If you have had conflict with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a flat where there is a current dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic rather than unsettled.

I own a studio flat in Cholsey, conveyancing formalities finalised in 2012. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Equivalent flats in Cholsey with over 90 years remaining are worth £221,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 invoiced annually. The lease terminates on 21st October 2094

With only 70 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £9,500 and £11,000 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.

How do I establish who owns a property in Cholsey?

As long as the property is recorded at HMLR, and you have enough details of the location of the premises, you will be able to view details from the HMLR of the registered proprietor for a a minimal charge.