I have just been advised by my lender that my West Moors lawyer is not on the lender Solicitor panel. How can I check?

Your first step should be to call your West Moors lawyer directly. It is reasonable to expect your lawyer to inform you of the situation. Where they are not on the panel they may recommend you to a West Moors conveyancing practice that is on the conveyancing panel for your bank.

A relative informed me that in purchasing a property in West Moors there may be various restrictions as to what one can do in terms of external changes to a property. Is this right?

There are anumerous of properties in West Moors which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to carry out external alterations. Part of the conveyancing in West Moors should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.

After months of negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in West Moors. My mortgage broker recommended their conveyancers. I paid an on account payment of £175. A few days later, the conveyancer called me to say that they were not on the Clydesdale 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 Clydesdale 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've digested plenty of mortgage guides, I note that they all recommend that you should get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local West Moors solicitor - who is on the Co-operative conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. is that correct?

Co-operative will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Co-operative will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. You may wish to consider appointing your own West Moors surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller.

We are planning on selling our house in West Moors and the buyers lawyers are claiming that there is a risk of it being built on contaminated land. Any local lawyer would know this is not the case. For the life of me I don't know why the buyers used a factory type conveyancing practice as opposed to a conveyancing solicitor in West Moors. We have lived in West Moors for 4 years we know that this is a non issue. Is it a good idea to get in touch with our local Authority to obtain clarification need.

It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing firm currently acting for you. What do they say? You should check with your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out health insurance to cover that same illness)

I am employed by a long established estate agency in West Moors where we see a number of leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local West Moors conveyancing firms. Could you shed some light as to whether the seller of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the proposed purchaser need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is to agree the lease extension with the freeholder either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the purchaser.

I own a split level flat in West Moors, conveyancing formalities finalised half a dozen years ago. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Equivalent flats in West Moors with a long lease are worth £197,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £55 invoiced every year. The lease ceases on 21st October 2079

With only 55 years remaining on your lease the likely cost is going to range between £31,400 and £36,200 as well as costs.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure without more comprehensive investigations. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be additional issues that need to be considered and you obviously want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.

What can I do to determine who owns a house in West Moors?

Assuming that the premises is recorded at HM Land Registry, and you have enough specifics of the address of the premises, you will be able to see results from the the Land Registry of the recorded proprietor for a for less than a fiver.