My fiance and I are hoping to buy a flat in Spennymoor and have instructed a Spennymoor conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Norwich and Peterborough Building Society have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Spennymoor solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?

Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your mortgage company and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Spennymoor solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

We are planning on selling our home in Spennymoor and according to the buyers it appears that there is a possibility that the property was constructed land that was not decontaminated. A high street Spennymoor conveyancer would know that there is no such problem. It does beg the question why the buyers instructed a national conveyancing firm as opposed to a conveyancing solicitor in Spennymoor. Having lived in Spennymoor for 4 years we know that this is a non issue. Do we contact our local Authority to get clarification that the buyers are looking for.

It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing lawyer currently acting for you. What do they say? You must enquire of your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out life insurance to cover that same ailment)

I am looking for a ground for flat up to £195,000 and found one close by in Spennymoor I like with a park and transport links in the vicinity, however it only has 49 years unexpired on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Spennymoor for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a short lease?

Should you require a home loan the shortness of the lease will be an issue. Reduce the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you can ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer concerning this.

Am I better off to appoint a Spennymoor conveyancing practitioner who is local to the property I am hoping to buy? An old friend can execute the legal work however his firm is located 400kilometers away.

The primary upside of using a local Spennymoor conveyancing firm is that you can visit the firm to execute documents, present your identification documents and apply pressure on them if necessary. They will also have local intelligence which is a bonus. However it's more important to get someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If if people you trust used your friend and the majority were impressed that must trump using an unknown Spennymoor conveyancing lawyer solely due to them being Spennymoor based.

I am a negotiator for a busy estate agent office in Spennymoor where we see a few flat sales put at risk due to short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Spennymoor conveyancing solicitors. Could you confirm whether the seller of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the proposed purchaser can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the buyer.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Spennymoor - Sample of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing

How much is the ground rent and service charge? What restrictions are contained in the Spennymoor Lease? Make sure you investigate if there is anything that is prohibited in the lease. For example some leases prohibit pets being permitted in certain buildings in Spennymoor. If you like the propertyin Spennymoor yet your dog can’t make the move with you then you have a very difficult choice.