My wife and I are hoping to acquire a house in Hungerford and have appointed a Hungerford conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. TSB have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Hungerford lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?

When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your mortgage company and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Hungerford lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

Why is leasehold purchase conveyancing in Hungerford costs more?

Hungerford leasehold conveyancing transactions usually involve additional investigations than freeholds including investigating the Lease, liaising with the Landlord such as serving appropriate notices on the Landlord or managing agent, obtaining up-to-date service charge and management information, obtaining Landlord’s consents and reviewing management accounts and formation documents.

Is there a search tool that I can use to discover of the solicitor handling my conveyancing in Hungerford is on the mortgage lender’sconveyancing panel? I am looking to avoid the situation of having one lawyer for me and one for Nottingham Building Society thus paying £192.00 in additional legal bill.

You should take advantage of the find a lender approved solicitor tool on this page. Pick the lender and type ‘Hungerford’ or your location and you will be presented with a number of lawyer offices in Hungerford or near you.

I used Stirling Law a few years ago for my conveyancing in Hungerford. Now, I need the files however the law firm is no longer operating. What do I do?

You should contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Hungerford of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously retained, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my 2 bed flat in Hungerford. Conveyancing has not commenced, but I have recently received a half-yearly service charge invoice – Do I pay up?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should pay the service charge as normal as all ground rent and service charges should be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I acquired a garden flat in Hungerford, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Equivalent flats in Hungerford with a long lease are worth £180,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 yearly. The lease expires on 21st October 2082

With only 59 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £20,900 and £24,200 as well as professional fees.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more comprehensive due diligence. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other issues that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.