My nephew is buying a house that has just been built in Berkeley with a mortgage from Lloyds. His conveyancer has said that there is a delay in completing the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. What is this document - I have never come across this before?

The form is intended to provide information to the main parties engaged in the purchase. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the Lloyds conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the surveyor when asked. The developer will be required to start the process by downloading the form and completing it. The form will therefore need to be available for the valuer at the time of his or her site visit. The form should be sent to the Lloyds conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.

The Berkeley conveyancing firm that I recently instructed on my purchase in Berkeley have suddenly shut down. I chose them because I had to have a firm on the Santander conveyancing panel and my family Berkeley lawyer was not. I issued them a cheque for two hundred pounds in advance. What should be my next steps?

If you have an estate agent involved then inform them immediately so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Santander conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers should be in a position to assist.

I'm purchasing my first flat in Berkeley benefiting from help to buy. The builders would not reduce the price so I negotiated 6k of fixtures and fittings instead. The sale representative advised me not to tell my conveyancer about the deal as it will impact my loan with Barclays Direct. Is this normal?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.

Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.

Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £195,000 and identified one round the corner in Berkeley I like with open areas and transport links nearby, however it only has 52 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in Berkeley in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a short lease?

Should you need a mortgage the shortness of the lease will likely be an issue. Discount the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing proprietor has owned the property for at least 2 years you can ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor concerning this matter.

I need to appoint a conveyancing solicitor for leasehold conveyancing in Berkeley. I happened to land on a web site which appears to be the perfect solution If it is possible to get all the legals completed via phone that would be preferable. Do I need to be wary? What should out be looking out for?

As usual with these online conveyancers you need to read ALL the small print - did you notice the extra charge for dealing with the mortgage?