I am acquiring a property without a mortgage in St James. I have been residing for the previous twelve years in St James. Conveyancing searches are expensive. Given that I know the road and vicinity very well must I have all the conveyancing searches?

In the absence of a home loan, then all but one or two of the St James conveyancing searches are at your discretion. Your conveyancer will try and steer you, no-doubt strongly, that you should have searches done, but she has a professional duty to do this. Do bear in mind; if you are likely to dispose of the house at a future date, it could be of relevance to your future buyer what the searches determine. Sometimes houses with functional issues can still throw up unexpected search results. A competent conveyancing solicitor in St James will be able to give you some helpful guidance in this regard.

Can you clarify what the consequences are if my solicitor is suspended from the UBS Conveyancing panel ahead of completing my conveyancing in St James?

The first thing to point out is that, this is very unlikely to happen. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have to instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by a regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit for a fee.

I am purchasing my first flat in St James with a loan from Barclays . The builders would not budge the amount so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The sale representative suggested that I not to tell my lawyer about this deal as it could put at risk my loan with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder 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.

My partner has encouraged me to use his lawyers for conveyancing in St James. Should I use them?

There are no two ways about it it’s preferable to select a conveyancing practitioner is to seek recommendations from friends or relatives who have actually experience in using the conveyancer you're contemplating using.

I am hoping to complete next month on a garden flat in St James. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they are sending me a report within the next couple of days. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in St James should include some of the following:

The physical extent of the premises. This will be the flat itself but may include a roof area or storage are if relevant. You must be informed what counts as a Nuisance in the lease You should receive a copy of the lease What you can do if another tenant in the building is in violation of a provision in their lease? Your solicitors should enable you to have an understanding of the insurance requirements

Having spent months of correspondence we are unable to agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in St James. Can we issue an application to the Residential Property Tribunal Service?

if there is a missing freeholder or if there is disagreement about the premium for a lease extension, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the LVT to assess the premium.

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a St James property is Flats 12A & 19, Evelyn Mansions Carlisle Place in June 2009. The Tribunal held that the price to be paid for the new lease of Flat 12A is £168,824, For the other flat the price was set at £169,110 This case was in relation to 2 flats. The number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 56 years.