After what seems like an age a mortgage agreement from Santander for the refinancing of my 4 room apartment is due imminently. Are you able to recommend a cheap conveyancing solicitor in St Mellons?

You are on the wrong site if you are in need of the cheapest conveyancing solicitors in St Mellons. Our aim is to provide excellent value conveyancing but our intention is not to work with the cheapest lawyers. Do not be fooled by brokers enticing you with £100 conveyancing in St Mellons. The optimum result, in being led by cheap conveyancing, you will get your money’s worth and at worst you will end up spending a lot in extras and still not get the service expected.

I am selling my house in St Mellons. Does my property lawyer have to be on the Skipton conveyancing panel in order to deal with repayment of my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Skipton conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their panel criteria fairly frequently in recent years.

We are close to exchanging contracts on the sale of our house in St Mellons 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 St Mellons lawyer would know that there is no such problem. For the life of me I don't know why the buyers instructed a nationwide conveyancing practice rather than a conveyancing solicitor in St Mellons. We have lived in St Mellons for 5 years we know of no issue. Is it a good idea to contact our local Authority to get confirmation need.

It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing solicitor already. What do they say? You should 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 sickness)

I used Stirling Law several years past for my conveyancing in St Mellons. I now require my file however the law firm has closed. What do I do?

You should contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracking down your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in St Mellons of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously retained, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

I’m about to sell my basement apartment in St Mellons. Conveyancing solicitors are to be appointed soon, but I have recently had a quarterly maintenance charge demand – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

The sensible thing to do is discharge the maintenance contribution as normal because all rents and maintenance charges should be allotted on completion, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the subsequent invoice 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. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

I bought a garden flat in St Mellons, conveyancing having been completed 6 years ago. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Equivalent flats in St Mellons with a long lease are worth £180,000. The ground rent is £65 levied per year. The lease runs out on 21st October 2078

With just 59 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to be between £20,900 and £24,200 as well as costs.

The figure above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of detailed due diligence. Do not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be other issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you take any other action placing reliance on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.