I am purchasing a 4 bedroom semi-detached house in South London. Our aim is to carry out an extension to the side at the property.Will the conveyancing process involve checks to see if these alterations are allowed?

Your property lawyer will review the registered title as conveyancing in South London will on occasion reveal restrictions in the title deeds which prevent categories of works or necessitated the consent of another owner. Some additions call for local authority planning permissions and approval in compliance with building regulations. Certain locations are designated conservation areas and special planning restrictions apply which often prevent or affect extensions. You should check these issues with a surveyor ahead of any purchase.

I have been told by my lawyer that flying freehold insurance is needed on my purchase. What is the level of cover for South London conveyancing?

The appropriate level of flying freehold indemnity insurance should be dictated by who who your lender is. It would differ for example between Yorkshire Building Society and Chelsea Building Society. Conveyancing solicitors as opposed to borrowers take out such insurances.

I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with Lloyds. I assume I don't need a South London lawyer on the Lloyds panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?

If you have finished paying off your Lloyds mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Lloyds mortgage from the register. Lloyds, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:

1. but are not moving to another property
2. where Lloyds has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
3. Lloyds has instructed the Land Registry to do so

We are buying a house and the lawyer has referenced Chancel Repair to which the house may be liable given it’s proximity to the area of such a church. She has recommended insurance. Is this strictly required for conveyancing in South London

Unless a previous purchase of the premises completed post 12 October 2013 you can assume that conveyancing practitioners carrying out conveyancing in South London to remain recommending a chancel search and or insurance against a claim.

The deeds to our property are lost. The conveyancers who conducted the conveyancing in South London 5 years ago have long since closed. What do I do?

Gone are the days when you need to have the physical official documentation to prove you own the land or property, as the Land Registry have everything they need in a digital format.

I am looking at a couple of flats in South London both have approximately 50 years remaining on the leases. Will this present a problem?

There are no two ways about it. A leasehold apartment in South London is a wasting asset as a result of the shortening lease. The nearer the lease gets to zero years unexpired, the more it adversely affects the salability of the premises. The majority of purchasers and lenders, leases with less than eighty years become less and less marketable. On a more upbeat note, leaseholders can extend their leases by serving a Section 42 Notice. One stipulation is that they must have owned the premises for two years (unlike a Section 13 notice for purchasing the freehold, when leaseholders can participate from day one of ownership). When successful, they will have the right to an extension of 90 years to the current term and ground rent is effectively reduced to zero. Before moving forward with a purchase of premises with a short lease term remaining you should talk to a solicitor specialising in lease extensions and leasehold enfranchisement. We are are happy to put you in touch with South London conveyancing experts who will explain the options available to you during an initial telephone conversation free of charge. A more straightforward and quicker method of extending would be to contact your landlord directly and sound him out on the prospect of extending the lease. They may agree to a smaller lump sum and an increase in the ground rent, but to shorter extension terms in return. You need to ensure that the agreed terms represent good long-term value compared with the standard benefits of the Section 42 Notice and that onerous clauses are not inserted into any redrafting of the lease.

Having spent years of dialogue we simply can't agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in South London. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

if there is a absentee landlord or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to assess the premium.

An example of a Lease Extension case for a South London residence is Flat B 10 Grove Avenue in October 2013. Following a vesting order Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court 3rd July 2013 The tribunal determines that the premium payable for the lease extension was £36,215.00 This case related to 1 flat. The unexpired term was 65.21 years.

I own a leasehold flat in South London. Conveyancing was finalised in 2010. I have been told that I should not allow the the remaining lease term to get too short. What is the reasoning?

South London residential long term leases are for a fixed period - often ninety nine years when they commenced. However many flats in South London were built or converted 30 or more years ago and so such leases now have under 80 years left to run. That may sound like plenty of time but Banks, Building Societies and other mortgage institutions generally require leases to have at least seventy five years remaining to be mortgageable. This means that when you come to sell the property you will need a lease extension if you are nearing 75 years. To enhance your property value you should be considering whether or not to extend your lease well in advance of selling the property. There are also advantages to taking action before the lease hits 80 years as when the lease is less than 80 years the amount you have to pay to extend starts to get a lot more expensive.