We are a couple about to sign contracts for a leasehold flat in North Walsham. We encountered a stumbling block. Our loan offer with The Mortgage Works runs out on 26/1/2026 but the sellers are putting forward a completion date of 28/1/2026. Can one extend the mortgage expiry date?

The best person to address this concern is your lawyer who will calculate whether he or she is should be discussing with the mortgage broker, vendor’s solicitors, property agents or indeed all three given the history of your house move as of today.

My friend recommended that where I am purchasing in North Walsham I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?

A search of this type is usually quoted for as part of the standard North Walsham conveyancing searches. It is a large document of about 40 pages, listing and setting out significant information about North Walsham around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime details, Local Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data concerning North Walsham.

My wife and I purchased a renovated Edwardian house in North Walsham. Conveyancing lawyer acted for me and Bank of Ireland. I did a free Land Registry search last week and there are a couple of entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold under the matching address. Is it worth asking Bank of Ireland to clarify?

You should 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 North Walsham and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with buyers. You can also question the situation with the conveyancing practitioner who carried out the work.

I am looking into buying my first house which is in North Walsham and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about North Walsham. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the North Walsham area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?

Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at North Walsham. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agent office in North Walsham where we see a number of leasehold sales jeopardised due to short leases. I have received contradictory information from local North Walsham conveyancing solicitors. Can you clarify whether the seller of a flat can commence the lease extension process for the buyer?

As long as the seller has been the owner for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or at the same time as completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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.

Leasehold Conveyancing in North Walsham - Examples of Questions you should ask Prior to buying

Please tell me if there are any major works in the planning that will likely increase the service charges? The majority of North Walsham leasehold properties will have a service bill for maintenance of the block invoiced by the management company. Should you acquire the flat you will have to pay this amount, normally in instalments throughout the year. This could vary from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built blocks. In all probability there will be a rentcharge to be met annual, this is usually not a large figure, say around £50-£100 but you need to check it because on occasion it could be prohibitively expensive.