My husband and I are planning to purchase a house in Milton and are in fact using a Milton conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Nationwide Building Society have this morning contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Milton conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?

Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is normal 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your lender and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Milton lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

A relative suggested that where I am buying in Milton I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?

This is a search is usually quoted for as part of the standard Milton conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of about 40 pages, listing and detailing important information about Milton around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime details, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information about Milton.

The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build flat in Milton. Conveyancing is necessary evil at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. What sort of enquires would be asked in new build legal work.

Set out below are examples of a few leasehold new build enquiries that you can expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Milton

The Lease must contain a provision on behalf of the Vendor to pay the service charges in respect of unoccupied units in order to ensure that all services can be provided. Will the freehold then be transferred for a nominal consideration (not exceeding £100) to the Management Company? The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme. Has the Lease plan been approved by the Land Registry and if not when will they be lodged for this purpose? Please supply a car parking plan.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a ground for flat up to £195,000 and identified one near me in Milton I like with a park and transport links nearby, the downside is that it only has 52 years unexpired on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Milton in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?

Should you require a home loan that many years will be a potential deal breaker. Discount the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this matter.

My mother completed her conveyancing in Milton in 2005. She has since got married, divorced and is now married again. She intends to market the house in a couple of months. I believe she will just be requested to supply copies of the marriage certificates to the conveyancing practitioner but she is worried it will delay the conveyancing. Should she instruct a lawyer to update the land title documents for the property?

It is not absolutely necessary to bring up to date the title for the property on the basis that you have the evidence required to demonstrate how the name change has come about.

Any purchaser’s conveyancing practitioner should review the title entries and need evidence by way of proof of the name change for instance marriage documentation.