Have just purchased a repossessed house at auction in New Milton. Conveyancing is necessary. What are my next steps?

Having to all intents and purposes signed on the dotted line you must appoint a conveyancing solicitor quickly as you now have a fast approaching a fixed date to complete the purchase. An auction property will have a bespoke legal pack. This should include most,if not all of the documents that your conveyancer will need. Where you are dealing with leasehold premises the legal pack should provide a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and associated conveyancing paperwork relating to leasehold premises. You should hand this to the lawyer working for you as soon as possible. Do make sure that your finances are in order to complete the transaction on the set completion date.

This question may be naive but I am unexperienced as a 1st time purchaser of a ground floor flat in New Milton. Do I receive the keys to the property on completion from my lawyer? If this is the case, I will appoint a High Street conveyancing solicitor in New Milton?

There is no need to visit the lawyers office on the day of completion. Your solicitors will transfer the completion advance to the seller's lawyers, and shortly after the monies have arrived, you should be called to pick up the keys from the selling Agents and move into your new home. This tends to happen early afternoon.

I am buying a 3 bedroom semi in New Milton. Our aim is to an extension at the rear at the property.Will legal work on the property include enquiries to determine if these works were previously refused?

Your property lawyer should review the deeds as conveyancing in New Milton will on occasion identify restrictions in the title deeds which prevent certain works or require the permission of a 3rd party. Many extensions require local authority planning permissions and approval under the building regulations. Some locations are designated conservation areas and special planning restrictions apply which often prevent or impact extensions. It would be prudent to check these issues with a surveyor prior to committing yourself to a purchase.

My wife and I purchased a 4 bedroom Georgian house in New Milton. Conveyancing lawyer represented me and Skipton Building Society. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and I saw two entries: the first freehold, another for leasehold with the exact same address. Is it worth asking Skipton Building Society to clarify?

You need to assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in New Milton and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they mortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also check the situation with the conveyancing practitioner who conducted the purchase.

I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold element on a property I have offered on two weeks back in what should have been a quick, chain free conveyancing. New Milton is where the house is located. Can you offer any opinion?

Flying freeholds in New Milton are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside New Milton you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds very carefully. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in New Milton may determine that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold premises.

I'm refinancing my current home to a BTL mortgage with Platform Home Loans Ltd and I will use the rest of the raised equity as a deposit on another property. The location we are looking at is New Milton. Will your solicitors be able to act for both sets of mortgage companies and link together the two deals?

Do use our comparison tool on this page to be sure that the conveyancers are approved by both banks. On the basis that they are the conveyancer will be able to simultaneously deal with the two conveyancing matters but you should have a chat with you conveyancer and communicate your expectations and requirements.

I work for a busy estate agency in New Milton where we see a few leasehold sales put at risk due to short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local New Milton conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the purchaser.

I am the registered owner of a garden flat in New Milton, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Corresponding flats in New Milton with over 90 years remaining are worth £190,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 per annum. The lease ceases on 21st October 2086

With 62 years remaining on your lease we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £17,100 and £19,800 plus professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to supply the actual costs without more comprehensive investigations. Do not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.