Why do I have to pay up front when it comes to conveyancing in Kings Heath?

Where you are retaining lawyers for conveyancing in Kings Heath your lawyer will request that you place them with monies to cover the search fees. Normally this is needed to cover the fees of the conveyancing searches. If any down payment is as part of the purchase price then this should be asked for shortly ahead of contracts are exchanged. The closing balance that is due should be sent to your lawyer shortly before completion.

My lawyer has informed me that absentee landlord insurance is required on my purchase. What is the level of cover for Kings Heath conveyancing?

The right level of absentee landlord indemnity insurance should be dictated by who your lender. It would differ for example between Barclays and Skipton Building Society. Conveyancing solicitors as opposed to borrowers take out such policies.

I had a mortgage agreed in principle with Aldermore. Kings Heath conveyancing practitioners have been appointed. What is the average time that one could expect to receive a mortgage offer from Aldermore?

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

I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Kings Heath. My financial adviser suggested a property lawyer. I paid an advanced payment of £225. A few days later, the lawyer called me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Co-operative 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 Co-operative 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.

Should our solicitor be raising enquiries concerning flooding as part of the conveyancing in Kings Heath.

Flooding is a growing risk for solicitors dealing with homes in Kings Heath. There are those who buy a property in Kings Heath, completely expectant that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, aside from the physical destruction, where a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to obtain a mortgage, adequate insurance cover, or dispose of the property. Steps can be carried out during the course of a property purchase to forewarn the purchaser.

Solicitors are not best placed to offer advice on flood risk, however there are a various searches that may be carried out by the purchaser or on a buyer’s behalf which should give them a better appreciation of the risks in Kings Heath. The conventional set of information given to a buyer’s solicitor (where the Conveyancing Protocol is adopted) contains a usual question of the owner to find out whether the premises has suffered from flooding. If the property has been flooded in past which is not disclosed by the vendor, then a purchaser could bring a compensation claim stemming from an incorrect reply. A buyer’s conveyancers will also order an enviro report. This will indicate if there is a recorded flood risk. If so, more detailed investigations should be carried out.

Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my home are lost. The conveyancers who handled the conveyancing in Kings Heath 4 years ago have long since closed. Will I be able to sell the house?

Gone are the days when you need to have the physical official documentation to evidence that you are the registered proprietor of land or premises, given that the Land Registry have everything they need in a digital format.

Taking into account that I am about to part with £400,000 on a two bedroom apartment in Kings Heath I would like to have a conversation with the conveyancer regarding theconveyancing in advance of instructing the firm. Is this something that you can arrange?

We could not agree more - it is our preference to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you speaking to the conveyancer who will be doing your conveyancing in Kings Heath.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - every client is unique person, not a file number. The practices that we put you in touch with believe that the fees you are provided with for residential conveyancing in Kings Heath should be the amount on the final invoice that you are charged.