It is a dozen years since I bought my home in Moseley. Conveyancing lawyers have just been retained on the sale but I am unable to locate the title deeds. Is this a problem?

You need not be too concerned. First there is a chance that the deeds will be kept by your lender or they may be in the possession of the solicitor who acted in your purchase. Secondly the chances are that the title will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to prove you are the registered owner by your conveyancing lawyers procuring current official copies of the land registers. The vast majority of conveyancing in Moseley involves registered property but in the unlikely event that your home is not registered it adds to the complexity but is resolvable.

I used Action Conveyancing several years past for my conveyancing in Moseley. I now require my file however the law firm is no longer operating. What do I do?

You should call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Moseley of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously instructed, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

I'm buying my first flat in Moseley with a mortgage from . The sellers would not budge the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of additionals instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not disclose to my lawyer about the extras as it could put at risk my mortgage with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

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.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £235,500 and identified one close by in Moseley I like with a park and station nearby, the downside is that it only has 49 years unexpired on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Moseley 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 need a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will be problematic. Discount the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you could 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 term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor about this matter.

I bought a split level flat in Moseley, conveyancing having been completed in 1995. Can you let me have an estimated range of the fair premium for a lease extension? Equivalent flats in Moseley with over 90 years remaining are worth £165,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 levied per year. The lease expires on 21st October 50

You have 50 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £36,100 and £41,800 plus legals.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure without more detailed due diligence. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action placing reliance on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.