My colleague suggested that if I am purchasing in Oakham I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?

A search of this type is occasionally included in the estimate for your Oakham conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of about 40 pages, listing and setting out important information about Oakham around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Oakham Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime details, Oakham Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about Oakham.

Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my house are lost. The solicitors who conducted the conveyancing in Oakham 10 years ago have long since closed. Will I be able to sell the house?

Assuming the title is registered the details of your proprietorship will be documented by the Land Registry with a Title Number. It is possible to perform a search at the Land Registry, identify your property and secure current copies of the Registered Entries for a small fee. Where the property is Leasehold then the Land Registry will also normally hold a certified copy of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be ordered for £20 inclusive of VAT.

I'm purchasing my first flat in Oakham with a mortgage from Bank of Ireland. The builders refused to move on the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of extras instead. The property agent told me not reveal to my solicitor about the extras as it could put at risk my mortgage with Bank of Ireland. Is this normal?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder 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've recently found out that there is a flying freehold element on a house I put an offer in a fortnight ago in what should have been a quick, chain free conveyancing. Oakham is where the house is located. What do you suggest?

Flying freeholds in Oakham are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Oakham you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds diligently. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Oakham 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 property.

I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Oakham. Before I get started I would like to find out the remaining lease term.

If the lease is registered - and almost all are in Oakham - then the leasehold title will always include the short particulars of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title. For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

I purchased a 1 bedroom flat in Oakham, conveyancing formalities finalised January 2009. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Equivalent properties in Oakham with an extended lease are worth £186,000. The ground rent is £55 invoiced every year. The lease finishes on 21st October 2077

With 52 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £29,500 and £34,000 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt other concerns that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.