The Ilkley conveyancing solicitors that I appointed last week on my purchase in Ilkley have suddenly shut down. I chose them because I had to have a solicitor on the Barclays conveyancing panel and my family Ilkley lawyer was not. I wrote them a cheque for £250 in advance. What are my options?

If you have an estate agent involved then let them know straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Barclays conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers should be in a position to help.

I'm buying a new build house in Ilkley with a mortgage from The Mortgage Works. The builders refused to reduce the amount so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The property agent advised me not inform my conveyancer about this side-deal as it would impact my mortgage with The Mortgage Works. Is this normal?.

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.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £305k and identified one near me in Ilkley I like with open areas and railway links nearby, however it's only got 51 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Ilkley in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a lease with such few years left?

If you require a home loan that many years may be problematic. Discount the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing owner has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you may request that they commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this.

I am thinking of appointing a conveyancing lawyer in Ilkley for my house move. Is it possible to check a firm’s record with the profession’s regulator?

One can search for presented Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) decisions stemming from inquisitions started on or after Jan 2008. Go to Check a solicitor's record. To find details about the period before 1 January 2008, or to check a solicitors record, call 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and 09.30 - 18.00 Tuesday. For callers outside the UK, use +44 (0)121 329 6800. The SRA sometimes monitor telephone calls for training purposes.

My partner and I may need to let out our Ilkley ground floor flat for a while due to a career opportunity. We used a Ilkley conveyancing firm in 2001 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time seek any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

A small minority of properties in Ilkley do contain a provision to say that subletting is only allowed with permission. The landlord is not entitled to unreasonably withhold but, in such cases, they would need to see references. Experience suggests that problems are usually caused by unsatisfactory tenants rather than owner-occupiers and for that reason you can expect the freeholder to take up the references and consider them carefully before granting consent.

I inherited a ground floor flat in Ilkley, conveyancing was carried out 7 years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Equivalent properties in Ilkley with an extended lease are worth £176,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 per annum. The lease ceases on 21st October 2105

With only 80 years unexpired the likely cost is going to be between £8,600 and £9,800 as well as 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 in the absence of detailed investigations. You should not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt other concerns that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.