I am obtaining a mortgage offer from Lloyds. My intention is to retain the legal services of a Licensed Conveyancer in Romsey. Does the Lloyds Conveyancing panel exclude conveyancers regulated by the CLC?

The Lloyds conveyancing panel is, like many other lenders, associated to the Council or Mortgage Lenders or BSA, open to Licensed Conveyancers regulated by the CLC.

The vendors of the property we are looking to purchase are using a conveyancing practitioner in Romsey who has recommended a exclusivity agreement with a payment 10k. Is it wise to enter into such agreements?

This type of arrangement isn't common in Romsey, conveyancers will often try and steer clients away from them as they detract from the primary focus, namely conveyancing and if you end up losing your deposit then the lawyer is left exposed. In addition, there is no guarantee that just because the proprietor has signed an exclusivity agreement they will sell to you. They may breach the agreement if they are offered a large enough incentive to do so because an aggrieved claimant with the benefit of a lockoutcontract will still be legally obliged to show losses as a consequence of the breach and this may not compare to the financial benefit that the owner may gain by breaching the contract, no matter how morally reprehensible the behaviour is.

In what way does my ID and proof of funds have anything to do with my conveyancing in Romsey? Why is this being asked of me?

It is indeed that case that the requirement set out by your solicitor has nothing to do with conveyancing in Romsey. However these days you can not proceed with any conveyancing transaction if you have not handing over evidence of your identity. This usually takes the form of a either your passport or driving licence plus a bank statement. Please note that if you are supplying your driving licence as proof of ID it needs to be both the paper section as well as the photo card part, one is not acceptable in the absence of the other.

Verification of your origin of monies is necessary in accordance with the Money Laundering Regulations. Don’t be offended when you are asked to produce this as your conveyancer must have this information on file. Your Romsey conveyancing lawyer will require evidence of proof of funds before they are able to accept any funds from you into their client account and they may also ask further questions regarding the source of monies.

My friend advised me that where I am purchasing in Romsey I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?

This is a search is usually included in the estimate for your Romsey conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of about 40 pages, listing and setting out significant information about Romsey around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime statistics, Romsey Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data regarding Romsey.

Having had my offer accepted I require leasehold conveyancing in Romsey. Before I get started I require certainty as to the unexpired term of the lease.

Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and almost all are in Romsey - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details 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 inherited a 1st floor flat in Romsey, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Equivalent flats in Romsey with a long lease are worth £216,000. The ground rent is £50 invoiced annually. The lease finishes on 21st October 2092

With only 68 years left to run the likely cost is going to be between £9,500 and £11,000 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to provide the actual costs in the absence of detailed investigations. Do not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional concerns that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.