My wife and I are spending time looking at apartments in Gamston and I am now considering a potential offer. Should I already have a solicitor in place at this point? I am planning to take a home loan with Lloyds.

You should start obtaining conveyancing quotes from solicitors ASAP. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and forward their details on to the estate agent. Given that you are taking out a mortgage with Lloyds, make sure you remember to check that your lawyer is on the Lloyds conveyancing panel.

I can not fathom if my mortgage offer requires a lease extension. I have telephoned my Gamston building society branch on various occasions and was informed it wasn't a problem and they will lend. My Gamston conveyancing solicitor - who is on the bank conveyancing panel- telephoned to say that they refuse to lend based on their UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook minimum lease term requirements. Who do I believe?

Provided that the lawyer is on the bank panel, they must comply with the CML Handbook requirements for the lender. Unless your lawyer obtains specific confirmation in writing that the mortgage company will go ahead, your lawyer has no choice but to refrain from exchanging contract and committing you to the purchase. We would suggest that you ask the mortgage company to contact your lawyer in writing confirming that they will accept the number of years left on the lease.

I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Gamston. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an on account payment of £225. A couple of days later, the property lawyer contacted me to say that they were not on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?

You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Coventry BS panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.

I have a semi-detached Victorian house in Gamston. Conveyancing lawyer acted for me and Virgin Money. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are a couple of entries: the first freehold, the second leasehold under the exact same address. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?

You should review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Gamston and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they sell they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also check the situation with the conveyancing solicitor who completed the work.

In what way can the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 affect my business premises in Gamston and how can your lawyers assist?

The particular law that you refer to affords protection to commercial lessees, giving them the dueness to make a request to court for a new tenancy and remain in occupation at the end of the lease term. There are certain specified grounds where a landlord can refrain from granting a lease renewal and the rules are complex. We are happy to direct you to commercial conveyancing practices who use the act for protection and handle your commercial conveyancing in Gamston

I am looking at a couple of flats in Gamston which have about fifty years unexpired on the leases. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

There is no doubt about it. A leasehold apartment in Gamston is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to its expiry date, the more it adversely affects the value of the property. For most buyers and lenders, leases with less than eighty years become less and less attractive. On a more upbeat note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the property for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of a residence with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with Gamston conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. More often than not it is possible to negotiate informally with the freeholder to extend the lease. They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

I invested in buying a studio flat in Gamston, conveyancing having been completed January 2003. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Similar flats in Gamston with a long lease are worth £227,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 charged once a year. The lease finishes on 21st October 2097

With only 72 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £9,500 and £11,000 as well as costs.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to advice on a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other concerns that need to be considered and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.

I have today placed an offer on an apartment in Gamston and the estate agent that we are using suggested his conveyancing practitioner. They quoted a thousand pounds plus VAT and disbursements. Does this sound reasonable?

You should not rely on 1 estimate. One should obtain like-for-like quotes for your conveyancing in Gamston. Then pick one that you trust and just as important, is on the approved panel of the lender that you are sourcing your mortgage from.