What advice do you have for searching for value for money conveyancing in Chorley?

First ask connections who they would recommend.

Second, look on the internet for conveyancing in Chorley. Call a couple or more firms from the list and invite them to send you their conveyancing fee calculations and have a conversation with the lawyer who will handle your legal process ahead ofmaking your decision.

Third is to use our search tool to assist you in finding the right lawyers for you based on your individual factors including area of the property,timings, complications and who the proposed mortgage company is. Don't take the bait of low cost conveyancing in Chorley

We see that you have a post code search directory listing firms on the UBS conveyancing panel. Do firms pay you a referral fee if I retain them for our conveyancing in Chorley?

We are a listing service only for law firms wishing to communicate if they are on the UBS conveyancing panel or other lender panels. We do not charge referral fees to any conveyancer that you subsequently appoint for your conveyancing in Chorley.

I had intended to instruct a conveyancing solicitor in Chorley for our home move. Our broker informed us that our mortgage company The Royal Bank of Scotland won't deal with them. Surely this is unduly restrictive?

Banks on the whole restrict either the type or the amount of conveyancing solicitors on their member panel. Typical examples of such criteria being that a law practice must not be a sole practitioner. As well as restricting the profile of firm, some have reduced the number of firms they permit to act for them. You should note that The Royal Bank of Scotland have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of The Royal Bank of Scotland Conveyancer Panel. Mortgage fraud was a primary driver in the reduction of conveyancing panels a few years ago even though there are mixed opinions about the level of solicitor engagement in some of that fraud. Data from the Land Registry indicate that plenty of law firms, including some in or near Chorley only perform a couple conveyances per annum.

I bought my apartment on 8 August and the transaction details are still not on the land registry website. Any reason for this? My conveyancing solicitor in Chorley said it would be formalised in less than a month. Are properties in Chorley uniquely lengthy to register?

There is nothing unique when it comes to conveyancing in Chorley registration formalities. Rather than based on location, timescales can vary according to who lodges the application, whether there are errors and if the Land registry communicate with any other persons or bodies. Currently in the region of 80% of submission are completed within two weeks but some can be subject to longer hold-ups. Historically registration is effected once the new owner is living at the property therefore an expedited registration is not typically an essential issue but where it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your lawyers should communicate with the Registry to express the reasoning for the application to be prioritised.

I am a negotiator for a reputable estate agency in Chorley where we see a number of leasehold sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local Chorley conveyancing solicitors. Please can you confirm whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

As long as the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the sale.

An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the buyer.

I am the registered owner of a 1st floor flat in Chorley, conveyancing formalities finalised December 1996. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Similar flats in Chorley with a long lease are worth £185,000. The ground rent is £65 invoiced every year. The lease ceases on 21st October 2085

With just 60 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to range between £20,000 and £23,000 as well as legals.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. Do not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action based on this information before getting professional advice.