I am purchasing a house for cash in Valley. I have been residing for the last 20 years in Valley. Conveyancing searches are expensive. As I know the road and vicinity intimately should I not bother getting the solicitor to do all the conveyancing searches?

If you not getting a home loan, then almost all of the Valley conveyancing searches are optional. Your lawyer will 'advise', perhaps strongly, that you should have searches done, but he is duty bound to do this. Do take into account; if you are going to dispose of the house one day, it will likely be be of importance to your future purchaser what the searches determine. There are plenty of instances where houses with functional issues can still throw up unfavourable search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in Valley should be able to give you some constructive guidance in this regard.

My home in Valley is up for sale and I have a purchaser. Does my lawyer need to be required to be on the HSBC conveyancing panel in order to deal with the discharge of my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the HSBC 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 conditions fairly frequently in recent years.

Have just purchased a repossessed house at auction in Valley. Conveyancing is required. What happens now?

Given that you are now legally committed yourself to purchase you should find a conveyancing practitioner quickly as you are faced with a tight a drop dead date to complete the property. Every auction property will have a corresponding legal set of papers. This should include the copy title deeds, local authority and drainage searches. If you have purchased leasehold property the conveyancing papers should provide a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and other conveyancing paperwork specific to a leasehold property. You must hand this to the conveyancer instructed by you at the earliest opportunity. You also need to ensure that you have funds in place to complete the transaction on the set completion date.

How can we tell if a Valley conveyancing solicitor on the Barclays panel is any good?

When it comes to conveyancing in Valley obtaining recommendations is a sensible starting point. Before you go ahead, check if they offer a no sale no fee offer. Also, you often get what you pay for - a firm which quotes more, will often provide a better service than one which is cheap as chips. We would always recommend that you speak with the solicitor handling your conveyancing.

I recently had an offer agreed on a house in Valley. My mortgage broker recommended their conveyancers. I paid an upfront payment of £200. A few days later, the lawyer contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Kent Reliance 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 Kent Reliance 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.

Will commercial conveyancing searches reveal impending roadworks that could impact a commercial premises in Valley?

Many commercial conveyancing solicitors in Valley will execute a SiteSolutions Highways report as it dramatically cuts the time that conveyancers invest in investigating accurate data on highways that impact buildings and development assets in Valley. The report sets out definitive data on the adoption status of roads, footpaths and verges, as well as the implication of traffic schemes and the rights of way surrounding a commercial development sites in Valley.

For every commercial conveyancing transaction in Valley it is crucial to investigate the adoption status of roads surrounding a site. Failure to identify developments where adoption procedures have not been addressed adequately could cause delays to Valley commercial conveyancing transactions as well as present a risk to future intentions for the site. These searches are not conducted for residential conveyancing in Valley.

I purchased my home on 10 January and the transaction details are still not registered. Should I be concerned? My conveyancing solicitor in Valley advises it would be registered in a couple of weeks. Are titles in Valley uniquely lengthy to register?

There is nothing unique about conveyancing in Valley registration formalities. Rather than based on location, timescales can differ subject to the party submitting the application, whether it is in order and whether the Land registry must send notices to any third persons or bodies. Currently approximately 80% of such applications are fully dealt with within two weeks but some can be subject to extensive hold-ups. Historically registration occurs once the new owner is living at the premises thus 'speed' is not usually primary concern yet where it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your conveyancer could speak with the land registry and explain the circumstances.