I was informed yesterday by my financial adviser that my Taunton lawyer is not on the mortgage company Solicitor panel. How can I check?

The best course of action for you to take is to contact your Taunton lawyer directly. It is reasonable to expect your lawyer to notify you of the situation. Where they are not on the panel they could put your in touch with solicitors on the approved list of lawyers for your bank.

Finally the sale completed on my house in Taunton last November yet the purchaser is telephoning daily complaining that his solicitor needs to hear from mine. What should have happened now that I have sold?

After completion of your disposal your lawyer should send the transfer deeds and all additional paperwork to the buyer’s solicitors. Where relevant, your conveyancer must also confirm that the home loan has been redeemed to the purchasers solicitors. There is unlikely to be post completion procedures peculiar conveyancing in Taunton.

My bid for a property was accepted at auction in Taunton. Conveyancing is required. What happens now?

Given that you are now exchanged you now have to instruct a conveyancing lawyer soon as you are facing a pending deadline in which to complete the transaction. An auction property will ordinarily have an associated legal pack. This will likely include the copy title deeds, local authority and drainage searches. If you have purchased leasehold premises the conveyancing pack may contain a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and associated conveyancing paperwork relating to leasehold premises. You should give this to your appointed conveyancing solicitor as soon as possible. You also need to ensure that your finances are organised to complete on the date specified in the contract.

I am planning to move home in May. Will my conveyancing solicitor call the removal company on the completion day. As an aside, can you suggest a removal company in Taunton. Conveyancing lawyer was chosen before I stumbled across this website.

On the afternoon of completion you will need to pick up the keys from your property agent however this can only occur when the vendors solicitors confirm to the agent that they acknowledge receipt of the completion payment and the keys can be collected. You will need to tell the removal men that they can start moving you in. We do not suggest a specific removal company but can assist you in choosing a residential property solicitor in Taunton or a lawyer that specialises in conveyancing in Taunton.

I recently had an offer agreed on a house in Taunton. My mortgage broker suggested a lawyer. I paid an upfront payment of £200. Soon after, the conveyancer contacted me to say that they were not on the HSBC conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?

You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the HSBC panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.

What does commercial conveyancing in Taunton cover?

Commercial conveyancing in Taunton covers a wide array of services, given by regulated solicitors, relating to business property. For example, this area of conveyancing can cover the sale or purchase of freehold business premises or, more commonly, the transfer of existing business tenancies or the drafting of new leasing arrangements. Commercial conveyancing solicitors can also offer advice on the sale of business assets, commercial loans and the termination of leases.

We own a leasehold flat in Taunton. Conveyancing was finished in last year. I have read on numerous consumer forums that I should not allow the lease length fall too short. What is the reasoning?

Taunton leasehold properties are for a set period - often just under one hundred years when they started. However a significant appartments in Taunton were constructed or converted 30 or more years ago and so these leases now have under 80 years remaining. This may sound like plenty of time but Banks, Building Societies and other mortgage lenders generally require leases to have a minimum of seventy five years unexpired to be mortgageable. This means that when you come to sell the property you will need to extend the term of your lease if you are getting close to eighty years. To increase your property value you should be thinking about whether or not to extend your lease well in advance of selling the property. Furthermore significant benefits to taking action before the lease hits eighty years as when the lease falls below 80 years the amount you have to pay to extend starts to escalate.