I have just been advised by my IFA that my Kensington lawyer is not on the lender Solicitor panel. What can I do to check?

The best course of action for you to take is to call your Kensington lawyer directly. It is reasonable to expect your lawyer to notify you of the situation. If they are not on the panel they may be able to suggest a Kensington conveyancing practice that is on the conveyancing panel for your lender.

Me and my fiancee are acquiring our first house. The conveyancing practitioner has contact usto ask if we would like to purchase supplemental conveyancing searches. Unfortunately we have no idea as to what's recommended for conveyancing in Kensington

The scope of Kensington conveyancing searches should be dictated entirely on the property, the location, the probability of any of these risks, your knowledge of the locality and risks, your overall appetite to risk. What matters is that you adequately understand what information the searches could give you. Then you can decide if you consider that you need that information. If unclear, ask your lawyer to recommend.

I am selling my home in Kensington. Does the conveyancing practitioner have to be on the Barclays conveyancing panel in order to deal with the discharge of my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Barclays conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their conditions fairly frequently currently.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Kensington from the perspective of saving time on the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Kensington can be reduced where you get in touch lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to put together the leasehold information needed by the purchasers’ representatives.
If you have had any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be warry about purchasing a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and pay any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled. In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s approval? In particular have you installed wooden flooring? Most leases in Kensington state that internal structural changes or installing wooden flooring necessitate a licence from the Landlord consenting to such works. If you fail to have the approvals to hand you should not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor before hand. The majority of freeholders or managing agents in Kensington charge for supplying management packs for a leasehold home. You or your lawyers should discover the fee that they propose to charge. The management information sought on or before finding a buyer, thus reducing delays. The average time it takes to obtain the necessary information is three weeks. It is the most usual reason for delay in leasehold conveyancing in Kensington.

I have had difficulty in trying to purchase the freehold in Kensington. Can the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal adjudicate on premiums?

Most certainly. We can put you in touch with a Kensington conveyancing firm who can help.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Kensington residence is 93 Oakwood Court in June 2010. the LVT determined that the premium to be paid for the new lease was £492,083, This case affected 1 flat. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 37.79 years.

The lawyers undertaking our conveyancing in Kensington has sent papers to review that show the property is unregistered with epitome documents. Why is the property not registred at HM Land Regsitry?

Almost all property in Kensington is registered. An 'epitome' is basically a dossier of photocopies of documents affecting an unregistered title. Many Kensington conveyancing practitioners will be capable of dealing with such matters but in the event that uncertainty prevails the usual recommendation nowadays appears to be for the seller’s conveyancer to register it first and thereafter sell - this will have a domino effect to cause a significant delay.