As a novice what is the most important advice you can give me regarding purchase conveyancing in Swansea?

Not many law firms or advisers will tell you this but conveyancing in Swansea and elsewhere in England and Wales is often a confrontational experience. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there exists lots of opportunity for conflict between you and other parties involved in the legal transfer of property. For example, the seller, property agent and even potentially your lender. Appointing a solicitor for your conveyancing in Swansea an important selection as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONE party in the process whose responsibility is to act in your legal interests and to protect you.

We are witnessing a distinct ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone must be blamed for the process being so protracted. We recommend that you your first instinct should be to trust your solicitor above all other parties in the conveyancing process.

Due to the advice of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a house in Swansea in advance of retaining lawyers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. My surveyor has said that some banks may refuse to give a loan on a flying freehold home.

It depends who your proposed lender is. Santander has different requirements for example to Birmingham Midshires. Should you wish to call us we can check with the relevant bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Swansea. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.

I am looking into buying my first house which is in Swansea and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Swansea. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Swansea area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?

Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Swansea. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of maisonettes in Swansea both have in the region of fifty years remaining on the leases. Will this present a problem?

A lease is a right to use the premises for a period of time. As a lease shortens the value of the lease decreases and it becomes more expensive to extend the lease. This is why it is generally wise to extend the lease term. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage companies may be unwilling to lend money on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a protracted process. We recommend you seek professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this area.

Swansea Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - Examples of Queries before Purchasing

Most Swansea leasehold properties will be liable to pay a service bill for maintenance of the block levied by the landlord. If you buy the apartment you will have to meet this charge, usually periodically accross the year. This can be anything from several hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built buildings. There will also be a ground rent to be met yearly, this is usually not a large sum, say around £25-£75 but you need to check it because sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds. This question is useful as a) areas could result in problems in the building as the common areas may begin to deteriorate where maintenance remain unpaid b) if the tenants have an issue with the managing agents you will need to know about it Generally speaking the cost for major works are not included within maintenance charges, albeit that there some managing agents in Swansea require tenants to pay into a sinking fund and this is used to offset against major repairs or maintenance.

Are the Swansea conveyancing lawyers identified as being on the mortgage company conveyancing panel, together with their details provided by the lender?

Swansea firms and firms conducting conveyancing in Swansea themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the lender conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from the mortgage company directly.