My wife and I are planning to buy a flat in Watnall and are in fact using a Watnall conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Clydesdale have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Watnall solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?

When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent the mortgage company. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer should contact your bank and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Watnall solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

Is there a reason why leasehold purchase conveyancing in Watnall costs more?

Watnall leasehold properties involve far more paperwork than a freehold purchase, and therefore takes more time to examine and advise upon.Conveyancing will involve the lease having to be checked which is usually a lengthy document, queries raised to ensure that the covenants and conditions have been observed. If it is a flat there will be a management company in existence and the accounts of this will need to be checked and enquiries raised to ensure it is operating efficiently and that all monies due have been paid by the Seller to the company and if not ensuring that money is paid up to date or the appropriate undertakings obtained.

Various web forums that I have frequented warn that are the main reason for hinderance in Watnall house deals. Is this right?

The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) has noted the determinations of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not feature amongst the top 10 causes of delays in the conveyancing process. Local searches are unlikely to be the root cause of holding up conveyancing in Watnall.

As co-executor for the will of my father I am selling a property in Swansea but live in Watnall. My solicitor (approximately 235 miles from mehas requested that I sign a statutory declaration before the transaction finalising. Can you recommend a conveyancing solicitor in Watnall to witness and place their company stamp on the document?

strictly speaking you should not need to have the documents witnessed by a conveyancing solicitor. Normally any notary public or qualified solicitor will do regardless of whether they are based in Watnall

What are the common problems that you come across in leases for Watnall properties?

Leasehold conveyancing in Watnall is not unique. All leases are individual and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain sections are missing. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

Clauses dealing with recovering service charges for expenditure on the building or common parts.

You will have difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease as they can affect a potential buyer’s ability to obtain a mortgage. Birmingham Midshires, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and TSB all have very detailed requirements when it comes to what is expected in a lease. If a mortgage lender believes that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the purchaser to withdraw.

Watnall Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should consider Prior to buying

Does the lease include onerous restrictions? The answer will be useful as a) areas can result in problems for the building as the common areas may begin to deteriorate where repairs are not paid for b) if the leaseholders have an issue with the running of the building you will wish to have complete disclosure Best to be warned whether fixing the lift or some other major work is coming up to be shared amongst the tenants and will materially impact the level of the service charges or result in a specific invoice.