My husband and I are purchasing a brand new duplex in Cuckfield and my solicitor is informing me that she has to the bank to disclose incentives from the developer. The Estate Agents are hassling me to sign contracts and I would rather not delay the conveyancing. Is my lawyer right?

You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancer. A precondition to being on a lender panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.

Are the BSA planning on creating a search tool with a view to list firms on the Loughborough BS conveyancing panel for instance in Cuckfield?

Lexsure has not been advised of any plans on the part of the BSA to promote such a tool.

I am buying a new build house in Cuckfield with a mortgage from Barclays Direct. The developers would not budge the price so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The house builders rep advised me not disclose to my solicitor about this deal as it will affect my mortgage with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder 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.

We're FTB’s - agreed a price, yet the property agent informed us that the seller will only move forward if we instruct their recommended lawyers as they want a ‘quick sale’. We would rather use a local conveyancer accustomed to conveyancing in Cuckfield

We suspect that the seller is not behind this request. If they desire ‘a quick sale', turning down a genuine buyer is is going to put the whole deal at risk. Try to communicate with the sellers directly and make the point that (a)you are serious purchasers (b)you are ready to progress, with finances in place © you do not need to sell (d) you intend to proceed fast (e)but you are going to appoint your preferred Cuckfield conveyancing lawyers - not the ones that will provide their estate agent a kickback or hit his conveyancing targets pre-set by senior management.

We own a leasehold flat in Cuckfield. Conveyancing was completed in 2009. I have been told that I mustn’t allow the the remaining lease term to get too short. Why is that a problem?

Cuckfield leasehold properties are for a fixed term - usually ninety nine years when they commenced. However many flats in Cuckfield were built or converted 30 or more years ago and so these leases now have under eighty years unexpired. This may sound like plenty of time however Banks, Building Societies and other mortgage lenders tend to require leases to have a minimum of seventy five years unexpired to be mortgageable. This means that when you come to sell the property you will need to extend the term of your lease if you are approaching eighty years. To increase your property value you should be considering whether to extend your lease long before you come to sell it. There are also advantages to taking action before the lease reaches even 80 years as when the lease is below 80 years the amount you have to pay to extend starts to increase.