As someone unfamiliar with conveyancing in St Helens what is the number one tip you can give me concerning the house moving process in St Helens

Not many law firms shout this from the rooftops but conveyancing in St Helens and elsewhere in England and Wales is often a confrontational process. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there exists plenty of opportunity for friction between you and others involved in the house moving process. For instance, the vendor, property agent and sometimes a bank. Appointing a lawyer for your conveyancing in St Helens should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the SOLE person in the transaction whose role it is to act in your best interests and to keep you safe.

We are witnessing a distinct ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone must be at fault for the process taking so long. We recommend that you your first instinct should be to trust your conveyancer above the other parties in the conveyancing process.

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

A search of this type is sometimes quoted for as part of the standard St Helens conveyancing searches. It is a large document of more than thirty pages, listing and setting out important information about St Helens 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 Property Price, Crime details, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about St Helens.

Just acquired a semi-detached house in St Helens , What is the estimated time for the Land Registry to register my ownership? My St Helens conveyancing solicitor works at snail pace, so I want to be sure the land registry aspects are dealt with.

There is nothing unique about conveyancing in St Helens registration formalities. As opposed to being determined by geographic area, timeframes can vary subject to who lodges the application, whether it is in order and whether the Land registry communicate with any other persons or bodies. As of today in the region of three quarters of such applications are fully addressed within two weeks but some can be subject to longer delays. Historically registration is effected once the buyer is living at the property so 'speed' is not typically top priority yet where there is a degree of urgency associated with the registration then you or your conveyancer must communicate with the Registry to express the reasoning for an expedited registration.

I'm purchasing my first flat in St Helens with the aid of help to buy. The builders would not move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The house builders rep advised me not inform my solicitor about this deal as it would adversely affect my mortgage with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.

Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.

Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.

I’m about to sell my 2 bed flat in St Helens. Conveyancing is yet to be initiated, but I have recently received a yearly maintenance charge invoice – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

It best that you discharge the service charge as you normally would because all ground rent and maintenance invoices will be allotted as part of the financial calculations for completion monies, so you will be reimbursed by the purchaser for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most managing agents 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I inherited a split level flat in St Helens, conveyancing having been completed half a dozen years ago. How much will my lease extension cost? Comparable flats in St Helens with an extended lease are worth £181,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £55 invoiced every year. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2076

With only 50 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to span between £32,300 and £37,400 plus 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 supply the actual costs without more detailed investigations. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.