I have just been advised by my estate agent that my Cowfold property lawyer is not on the mortgage company Solicitor panel. What can I do to be certain whether this is indeed the case?

The first thing you need to do is to call your Cowfold lawyer directly. You lawyer should advise you of the situation. Where they are not on the panel they could put your in touch with solicitors on the approved list of lawyers for your lender.

Do the Building Society Association intend to launch a search tool with a view to to identify law firms on the Loughborough BS conveyancing panel for example in Cowfold?

We are not aware of any intention on the part of the BSA to promote such a tool.

I used Arc property Solicitors a few years ago for my conveyancing in Cowfold. Now, I need my documents but the law firm has closed. What do I do?

Do contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracing your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Cowfold of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously instructed, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

Completion is due on the sale of our £150,000 flat in Cowfold next Wednesday. The freeholder has quoted £420 for Certificate of Compliance, insurance certificate and previous years service charge statements. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge exorbitant fees for a flat conveyance in Cowfold?

Cowfold conveyancing on leasehold apartments usually necessitates the purchaser’s solicitor submitting enquiries for the landlord to address. Although the landlord is not legally bound to address these enquiries the majority will be content to do so. They are at liberty to levy a reasonable administration fee for answering enquiries or supplying documentation. There is no set fee. The average costs for the paperwork that you are referring to is over three hundred pounds, in some situations it is above £800. The management information fee required by the landlord must be sent together with a summary of rights and obligations in relation to administration charges, without which the charge is not strictly payable. Reality however dictates that you have no option but to pay whatever is demanded if you want to exchange contracts with the buyer.

Cowfold Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries before Purchasing

This information is useful as a) areas may cause problems in the building as the common areas may start to deteriorate where services remain unpaid b) if the tenants have a dispute with the running of the building you will wish to have all the details The best form of lease arrangement is where the freehold title is owned by the leaseholders. In this situation the leaseholders have being in charge if their destiny and although a managing agent is often retained if the building is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent acts for the leaseholders themselves. You will want to discover as much as possible concerning the managing agents as they can either make life much simpler or uncomfortable. Being a leasehold owner you are frequently in the clutches of the managing agents both financially and when it comes to day to day matters like the tidiness of the common parts. Ask other people what they think of their management. On a final note, find out the dates that you are obliged pay the maintenance charge to the relevant party and specifically how they are spending that money.

Midway through the sale of a leasehold flat in Cowfold. Conveyancing is fine but we have been asked to pay an extortionate amount from the freeholder. To date we have issued a cheque for £268 for a leasehold management information and then a further £117.20 for answers to queries supplied by the buyers lawyer.

You will not have control over the extent of the charges for this information however the average fee for the information for Cowfold leasehold property is £360. For Cowfold conveyancing transactions it is customary for the owner to cover the costs. The freeholder or their agents are not duty bound to answer such questions although many will be content to do so - albeit often at high prices where the fees bear little relation to the work involved. Unfortunately there is no statute that mandates capped charges for administrative tasks. There is no prescriptive time frame by which they are required to provide the information.