I am purchasing a property without a mortgage in Frenchay. I have lived for the last dozen years in Frenchay. Conveyancing searches are a lot of money. Given that I know the road and vicinity very well must I have all the conveyancing searches?

In the absence of a home loan, then all but one or two of the Frenchay conveyancing searches are at your discretion. Your conveyancer will try and steer you, perhaps strongly, that you should have searches carried out, but she is duty bound to take that path of guidance. Do take into account; if you are likely to sell the house in the future, it will be of interest to your future purchaser what the searches contain. Sometimes premises with no practical issues can still reveal unexpected search results. A competent conveyancing solicitor in Frenchay will be able to give you some sensible advice concerning this.

I am buying my first flat in Frenchay with a mortgage from Santander. The sellers refused to reduce the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The estate agent told me not inform my conveyancer about the deal as it could adversely affect my mortgage with Santander. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

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.

Given that I will soon spend £400,000 on a house in Frenchay I would like to have a conversation with the lawyer regarding thetransaction prior to giving the go ahead to the firm. Can this be arranged?

We could not agree more - it is our preference to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you speaking to the conveyancer who will be carrying out your conveyancing in Frenchay.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - every client is an important individual, not a file number. The solicitors that we put you in touch with believe that the fees you are provided with for your conveyancing in Frenchay should be the amount on the final invoice that you end up paying.

Should I appoint a Frenchay conveyancing solicitor in close proximity to the house I am hoping to buy? An old friend can execute the conveyancing however his firm is located 300miles drive away.

The primary upside of using a local Frenchay conveyancing firm is that you can drop in to sign documents, hand in your identification documents and apply pressure on them where appropriate. Having local Frenchay know how is a bonus. However nothing is more important than finding someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If other friends have instructed your friend and on the whole were happy that should surpass using an unfamiliar Frenchay conveyancing lawyer solely due to them being local.

A conveyancing firm acted on my conveyancing in Frenchay half a dozen years ago and was holding my registration documents but has since been shut down – how do I retreive these?

Deeds, as such, no longer exist as the majority of properties in Frenchay are archived digitally at Land Registry. Where you need to show evidence of proprietorship or are disposing of or re-mortgaging your conveyancing practitioner will need to 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.