I have just been advised by my IFA that my St Austell property lawyer is not on the mortgage company Solicitor panel. What can I do to check?

The first thing you need to do is to contact your St Austell conveyancer. It is reasonable to expect your lawyer to notify you what has happened. If they are not on the panel they could put your in touch with solicitors on the conveyancing panel for your mortgage company.

We're in St Austell, First timers buying with a mortgage (lender is Yorkshire BS , and our lawyer is on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel). How long should the conveyancing process take?

The fact that your lawyer is on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel is a help. It would almost certainly delay matters if they were not. However, no lawyer should guarantee a timeframe for your conveyancing, due to third parties outside of your control such as delays caused by lenders,conveyancing search providers or by the other side’s solicitors. The time taken is often determined by the number of parties in a chain.

I have todaydiscovered that Wolstenholmes have closed. They carried out my conveyancing in St Austell for a purchase of a leasehold apartment 10 months ago. How can I be sure that the property is registered correctly in the name of the previous owner?

The quickest way to see if the property is registered to you, you can make 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 St Austell conveyancing specialists.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a ground for flat up to £305k and found one close by in St Austell I like with amenity areas and transport links nearby, however it only has 49 years on the lease. There is not much else in St Austell in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a short lease?

Should you require a home loan that many years will be problematic. Discount the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you can request that they commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this.

Having checked my lease I have discovered that there are only Fifty years unexpired on my flat in St Austell. I am keen to get lease extension but my landlord is can not be found. What options are available to me?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for for permission to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be granted an extra 90 years by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to track down the landlord. On the whole a specialist should be useful to conduct investigations and prepare an expert document which can be used as evidence that the freeholder is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor both on investigating the landlord’s absence and the application to the County Court overseeing St Austell.

St Austell Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries before buying

How much is the ground rent and service charge? Does the lease contain onerous restrictions? How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their maintenance charge payments?