Me and my wife are buying our first property. The conveyancer has messagedto check if we would like to order supplemental conveyancing searches. Unfortunately we are clueless as to what's appropriate for conveyancing in Erdington

The number and type of Erdington conveyancing searches depends entirely on the premises, the location, the likelihood of any of these risks, your familiarity of the area and risks, your overall appetite to risk. What matters is that you adequately understand what information the searches could provide. Then you can decide if you consider that you need that search. Where you are uncertain, ask the conveyancer to advise.

Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to our house are lost. The solicitors who conducted the conveyancing in Erdington 4 years ago no longer exist. What do I do?

Assuming you have a registered title the information relating to your ownership will be documented by HMLR with a Title Number. It is possible to conduct a search at the Land Registry, locate your house and order current copies of the property title for less than a fiver. If the property is Leasehold then the Land Registry will also normally retain a file copy of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be retrieved for £20 inclusive of VAT.

I'm buying my first flat in Erdington with a mortgage from Skipton Building Society. The builders would not budge the price so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The sale representative suggested that I not disclose to my lawyer about this extras as it would jeopardize 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.

In my capacity as executor for the will of my father I am selling a residence in Monmouth but I am based in Erdington. My conveyancer (who is 260 kilometers awayneeds me to execute a stat dec prior to completion. Can you recommend a conveyancing lawyer in Erdington who can witness this legal document for me?

strictly speaking you should not need to have the documents attested by a conveyancing solicitor. Ordinarily or notary public or qualified solicitor will be fine regardless of whether they are Erdington based

I would like to let out my leasehold apartment in Erdington. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask him. Is permission from the freeholder required?

A lease governs the relationship between the freeholder and you the leaseholder; specifically, it will set out if subletting is banned, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. Most leases in Erdington do not contain strict prohibition on subletting – such a clause would undoubtedly devalue the flat. In most cases there is simply a requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly sending a duplicate of the sublease.

I inherited a split level flat in Erdington, conveyancing was carried out December 2003. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Corresponding flats in Erdington with over 90 years remaining are worth £186,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £55 invoiced annually. The lease runs out on 21st October 2075

With 51 years unexpired the likely cost is going to be between £30,400 and £35,200 plus professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs without more comprehensive investigations. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.