My wife and I are purchasing a apartment in Vauxhall. It might be a silly question but how we can trust a solicitor? At some point we will need to deposit money into their account. What is the protection we have from them run away with our deposit?

Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.

I am helping my niece sell her property in Vauxhall. Will the conveyancer arrange the EPC or do I organise this?

After the demise of Home Packs, EPC’s was maintained a required element of moving house. An energy assessment should be to hand prior to the property being placed on the market. It is not a task that law firms normally organise. Where you are instructing a Vauxhall conveyancing practitioner they may help arrange EPC’s due to their contacts with long established local energy assessors

We are getting a further advance on our mortgage from TSB as we want to carry out improvements to our home in Vauxhall. Do we need to choose a nearby Vauxhall solicitor on the TSB conveyancing panel to deal with the paperwork?

TSB do not ordinarily instruct a member of their approved list of lawyers to handle the formalities. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the TSB panel.

I have recentlybeen informed that Arc property Solicitors have been shut down. They conducted my conveyancing in Vauxhall for a purchase of a leasehold apartment 18 months ago. How can I check that the property is in my name in the name of the former proprietor?

The easiest method to see if the premises is in your name, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Vauxhall conveyancing specialists.

Just had an offer accepted on a new build apartment in Vauxhall. Conveyancing is necessary evil at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. What sort of enquires would be asked in new build legal work.

Set out below are examples of a few leasehold new build questions that you should expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Vauxhall

There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. Will control of the Management Company (if any) be handed over to purchasers on completion of the last sale or earlier? The Lease must contain a provision on behalf of the Vendor to pay the service charges in respect of unoccupied units in order to ensure that all services can be provided. Investor purchasers must be able to freely grant unsecured tenancies at market rents without requiring any consents. Forfeiture - bankruptcy or liquidation must not apply under this provision.

I decided to have a survey completed on a house in Vauxhall in advance of appointing solicitors. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. Our surveyor advised that some mortgage companies tend refuse to grant a mortgage on such a home.

It depends who your proposed lender is. Bank of Scotland has different instructions from Birmingham Midshires. If you call us we can look into this further with the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Vauxhall. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.

My 20yr old son is just in the process of moving house, he had his mortgage in principle. After the seller agreed the offer on the apartment we rang the mortgage institution to go forward with his. We were very surprised to hear that mortgage lenders do not accept all lawyer, they have to be on a list, is this correct?

Lenders normally imposes restrictions either the type or the number of conveyancing firms on their approved list of lawyers. Typical examples of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that banks have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any Vauxhall solicitor on their panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, conveyancing is not their speciality. To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime? Unlikely.