My wife and I are buying a newly constructed flat in Levenshulme and my solicitor is advising me that she is duty bound to the mortgage company to disclose incentives from the seller. The Estate Agents are hassling me to exchange contracts and my preference is not to delay the conveyancing. is my lawyer playing by the book?

You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancing practitioner. A precondition to being on a bank panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook provisions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.

I acquired my home on 11 April and the transaction details are still not on the land registry website. Any reason for this? My conveyancing solicitor in Levenshulme said it should be registered in a couple of weeks. Are titles in Levenshulme particularly slow to register?

There is nothing unique about conveyancing in Levenshulme registration formalities. Rather than based on location, timescales can adjust depending on who lodges the application, whether it is in order and whether the Land registry communicate with any 3rd persons or bodies. At present in the region of three quarters of submission are fully addressed in less than three weeks but some can be subject to protracted delays. Historically registration is effected after the buyer is living at the premises therefore an expedited registration is not always an essential issue yet if it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your conveyancer can communicate with the Registry to express the reasoning for an expedited registration.

I am purchasing a new build house in Levenshulme with the aid of help to buy. The sellers refused to budge the price so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The house builders rep told me not to tell my conveyancer about this extras as it may affect my loan with Aldermore. Is this normal?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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 would like to rent out my leasehold apartment in Levenshulme. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask her. Is permission from the freeholder required?

A small minority of properties in Levenshulme do contain a provision to say that subletting is only permitted with prior consent from the landlord. The landlord cannot 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 permission.

Levenshulme Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Queries before Purchasing

Is anyone aware of any major works on the horizon that will add a premium to the maintenance costs? What is the service charge and ground rent on the property? What restrictions are there in the Levenshulme Lease?

My 20yr old son is just in the process of moving home, he had his mortgage in principle. When the offer was accepted on house we called the bank to go forward with his. We were very surprised to learn that mortgage lenders do not accept all lawyer, they have to be on a list, is this legal?

Mortgage Companies tend to imposes restrictions either the type or the number of conveyancing practices on their panel. A common example of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that banks have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any Levenshulme property lawyer on their panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, conveyancing is not their speciality. To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime? Unlikely.