I am buying a house and need a conveyancing solicitor in Poundbury who is on the Coventry Building Society approved. Can you recommend a local conveyancing firm?

Our service is limited to being a directory service for firms who wish to listed as being on the approved conveyancing panel for Coventry Building Society in certain locations such as Poundbury. We dont recommend any particular firm.

My solicitor has informed me that lack of planning permission insurance is required on my purchase. What is the level of cover for Poundbury conveyancing?

The right level of lack of planning permission indemnity insurance depends on your lender. It would differ for example between Yorkshire Building Society and Skipton Building Society. Conveyancing lawyers as opposed to members of the public take out such insurances.

Are all Poundbury Conveyancing Quality Solicitors on the UBS conveyancing panel?

Some major lenders now use CQS as the starting point for Panel approval such as HSBC and Santander. The Law Society’s CQS accreditation however gives no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. That being said,the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for firms wishing to join their approved list of conveyancing solicitors.

I have instructed a Poundbury property lawyer having made sure that they are on the Santander conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?

Santander will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Santander will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your property lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Poundbury postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Santander, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Poundbury.

The deeds to our house can not be found. The solicitors who dealt with the conveyancing in Poundbury 5 years ago no longer exist. What do I do?

Assuming you have a registered title the information relating to your proprietorship will be retained by HMLR with a Title Number. It is easy to execute a search at the Land Registry, locate your property and secure up to date 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 refinancing my current house to a BTL mortgage with Bank of Scotland and intend to use the remaining equity as a down payment on another property. The area we are talking about is Poundbury. Will your lawyers be able to act for both sets of mortgage companies and tie in the transactions?

Make use of our comparison tool on this site to be sure that the conveyancers are approved by both banks. On the basis that they are your conveyancer should be able to connect the two deals but you should talk with you conveyancer and make apparent your expectations and needs.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a two flats in Poundbury which have approximately fifty years unexpired on the lease term. Should I regard a short lease as a deal breaker?

A lease is a right to use the premises for a prescribed time frame. As a lease gets shorter the marketability of the lease reduces and results in it becoming more expensive to extend the lease. This is why it is generally wise to increase the term of the lease. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage companies less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We recommend you get professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field.

Poundbury Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Queries before Purchasing

For most Poundbury leaseholds the cost for major works tend not to be wrapped into the service charges, albeit that some managing agents in Poundbury obliged leasehold owners to contribute towards a reserve fund and this is used to offset against larger works. Many Poundbury leasehold apartments will incur a service charge for maintenance of the building set on behalf of the management company. Where you acquire the apartment you will have to pay this liability, normally periodically during the year. This can differ from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built blocks. In all likelihood there will be a ground rent to be met annual, normally this is not a exorbitant figure, say approximately £25-£75 but you need to enquire as occasionally it could be many hundreds of pounds. The best form of lease arrangement is a share of the freehold. In this arrangement the tenants benefit from being in charge if their destiny and even though a managing agent is frequently retained where the building is larger than a house conversion, the managing agent acts for the leaseholders themselves.