I am helping my aunt sell her property in Hillingdon. Will the solicitor order an energy assessment or it is for the seller to see to?

After the demise of Home Packs, energy performance certificates was left as a required part of selling a house. An energy performance certificate must be commissioned before the property is marketed. It is not a task that law firms ordinarily organise. Where you are instructing a Hillingdon conveyancing lawyer they might be willing to arrange energy performance certificates given their relationships with reputable local accredited person

I had a mortgage agreed in principle with Bank of Ireland. Hillingdon conveyancing lawyers were appointed. How long does it take for Bank of Ireland to forward the offer to the conveyancing practitioner?

There is no definitive answer here. Have Bank of Ireland completed the survey? Have you informed Bank of Ireland as to your lawyers' details and checked that your lawyers are on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel? Sometimes it can take as long as six weeks for a mortgage offer to be issued.

I have paid off my mortgage with Co-operative. I assume I don't need a Hillingdon property lawyer on the Co-operative panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?

If you have finished paying off your Co-operative mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Co-operative mortgage from the register. Co-operative, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:

1. but are not moving to another property
2. where Co-operative has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
3. Co-operative has instructed the Land Registry to do so

A friend recommended that where I am purchasing in Hillingdon I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?

This is a search is sometimes quoted for as part of the standard Hillingdon conveyancing searches. It is a large report of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing significant information about Hillingdon around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Hillingdon Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Hillingdon Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information about Hillingdon.

Me and my brother own a 4 bedroom Victorian property in Hillingdon. Conveyancing lawyer represented me and TSB. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are two entries: the first freehold, another for leasehold under the matching address. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?

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 owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Hillingdon and other areas of the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with purchasers. You can also check the position with the conveyancing lawyer who completed the work.

I am buying a new build house in Hillingdon benefiting from help to buy. The sellers would not reduce the amount so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The property agent told me not to tell my solicitor about the deal as it could adversely affect my loan with The Royal Bank of Scotland. 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.

I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold issue on a property I put an offer in last month in what was supposed to be a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. Hillingdon is the location of the property. What do you suggest?

Flying freeholds in Hillingdon are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Hillingdon you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds thoroughly. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Hillingdon may decide that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold residence.