I have given 2 months notice to my current landlord and have to be out of my rented flat in West Molesey by 5/2/2019. Conveyancing for my house purchase is underway. Can I complete in three weeks as I wish to avoid having to move into temporary accommodation?

The normal practice is not to provide notice for your lease until you have exchanged. Assuming that you have not previously done so, notify to your solicitor and request that they cajole the sellers side, try to get a realistic time scale from them that all parties will look to achieve

Have just purchased a probate house at auction in West Molesey. Conveyancing is needed. What is next?

Having exchanged you will need to hire the services of a conveyancing lawyer as a matter of urgency as you now have a pending deadline in which to complete the conveyancing. Every auction property should have a bespoke legal pack. This will include the copy title deeds, local authority and drainage searches. In the case of leasehold premises the conveyancing papers may contain a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and associated conveyancing paperwork specific to leasehold premises. You must pass this on to your appointed conveyancing solicitor ASAP. Do make sure that you have funds in place to complete the transaction on the set completion date.

The mortgage over my property is with TSB for my property in West Molesey. Conveyancing has been completed 12 months ago. In the event that I decide to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform TSB?

TSB must be informed of your intention in advance of renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of TSB’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will allow you to rent out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact TSB directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a TSB conveyancing panel firm.

I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in West Molesey. My mortgage broker recommended their conveyancers. I paid an upfront payment of £175. A couple of days later, the conveyancing practitioner contacted me to say that they were not on the Leeds Building Society 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 Leeds Building Society 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.

I have been told that property searches are the number one cause of delay in West Molesey conveyancing transactions. Is that correct?

The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) published determinations of research by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not figure within the top 10 causes of delays during the legal transfer of property. Searches are unlikely to feature in any holding up conveyancing in West Molesey.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £195,000 and found one round the corner in West Molesey I like with amenity areas and station in the vicinity, the downside is that it's only got 49 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in West Molesey suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake purchasing a lease with such few years left?

If you require a mortgage that many years will be an issue. Reduce the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the property for at least 2 years you could request that they start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor concerning this matter.

We are midway through buying a house in West Molesey. Conveyancing solicitor has phoned to say the title is "Leasehold". Should this make a difference on the marketability of the house?

West Molesey conveyancing does not ordinarily involve leasehold houses. The crucial consideration here is the length of lease and the ground rent. If it's 999 years with a nominal rent, it's almost the same as freehold, so it’s unlikely to impact the saleability too much.

At the other extreme, if it's, say, Sixty years it will have a material impact on the saleability, and most likely wouldn't be mortgageable. The remaining lease term and ground rent will be stated in the lease which should be made available to your conveyancing practitioner.