Our god-son is about to exchange on a newly built flat in Sandiacre with a home loan from Nottingham. His conveyancer has said that there is a delay in receiving the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. What is this document - I have never come across this before?

The document is intended to provide information to the main parties involved in the purchase. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the Nottingham conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the valuer when asked. The developer will be required to start the process by downloading the form and completing it. The form will therefore need to be available for the valuer at the time of his or her site visit. The form should be sent to the Nottingham conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.

The Sandiacre conveyancing firm that I recently instructed on my house acquisition in Sandiacre have suddenly shut down. I chose them because I needed a solicitor on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel and my family Sandiacre lawyer was not. I paid them £170 on account. What should be my next steps?

If you have an estate agent involved then inform them straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers may be able to assist.

I have recentlydiscovered that Action Conveyancing have been shut down. They carried out my conveyancing in Sandiacre for a purchase of a leasehold flat 18 months ago. How can I establish that my home is in my name in the name of the previous owner?

The easiest method to check if the premises is registered to you, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Sandiacre conveyancing specialists.

I am looking for a flat up to £305k and identified one round the corner in Sandiacre I like with a park and transport links in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 61 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Sandiacre for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a short lease?

If you require a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be an issue. Reduce the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you can request that they start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer concerning this.

I have just appointed agents to market my ground floor apartment in Sandiacre. Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed, but I have recently received a half-yearly service charge demand – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

It best that you pay the invoice as normal because all rents and service payments will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the purchaser for the period running from after the completion date to the subsequent invoice date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I invested in buying a 2 bed flat in Sandiacre, conveyancing was carried out in 1999. Can you shed any light on how much the price could be for a 90 year extension to my lease? Similar properties in Sandiacre with a long lease are worth £206,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 per annum. The lease ceases on 21st October 2089

With just 65 years remaining on your lease the likely cost is going to span between £13,300 and £15,400 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide the actual costs without more detailed investigations. Do not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other 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 seeking the advice of a professional.