Are the Cornwall conveyancing solicitors identified as being on the Santander conveyancing panel, together with their details provided by Santander?

Cornwall conveyancing firms themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Santander conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Santander directly.

We are purchasing a house and the conveyancer has mentioned Chancel Repair for which the property may be liable given it’s proximity to the area of such a church. She has suggested insurance. Is this strictly warranted for conveyancing in Cornwall

Unless a previous purchase of the premises completed after 12 October 2013 you may expect conveyancing practitioners delivering conveyancing in Cornwall to continue to suggest a chancel search and or chancel repair liability insurance.

I'm buying a new build house in Cornwall with the aid of help to buy. The developers would not budge the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The sale representative told me not reveal to my conveyancer about the extras as it could put at risk my mortgage with the bank. 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've recently bought a leasehold property in Cornwall. Am I liable to pay service charges for periods before my ownership?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous lessee and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. However, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to ensure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

Leasehold Conveyancing in Cornwall - A selection of Queries before buying

Make sure you find out if there is anything that is prohibited in the lease. For example it is reasonably common in Cornwall leases that pets are not allowed in in a block in Cornwall. If you like the propertyin Cornwall however your dog can’t move with you then you will be faced hard decision. Is there a share of the freehold? What is the annual service fee and ground rent?

A conveyancing company dealt with my conveyancing in Cornwall half a dozen years past and was holding my deeds but has now closed – What can I do to get hold of these?

Deeds, as such, are no longer appropriate for the majority of properties in Cornwall are archived digitally at Land Registry. Where you need to show ownership or are disposing of or re-mortgaging your lawyer should obtain up to date copies of the register from the Land Registry in any case.

If you feel there may be other documents or you have any other queries please e-mail your request with details of the transaction and documents you need to filerequest@clc-uk.org. The CLC will let you know what information they have and any additional information they may need before they are in a position to identify and send the documents to you. Following an intervention it may take some time for the CLC to access archived files and documents, but your request will be actioned with reasonable haste.