My fiance and I are looking to buy a home in Bookham and have appointed a Bookham conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Lloyds TSB Bank have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Bookham solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?

If you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent the purchaser's lender. 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 solicitor should contact your mortgage company 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 lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Bookham solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

I purchased a freehold property in Bookham but still pay rent, why is this and what is this?

It is rare for properties in Bookham and has limited impact for conveyancing in Bookham but some freehold properties in England (particularly common in North West England) pay an annual sum known as a Chief Rent or a Rentcharge to a third party who has no other legal interest in the land.

Rentcharge payments are usually between £2.00 and £5.00 per year. Rentcharges have existed for many centuries, but the Rent Charge Act 1977 barred the creation of new rentcharges from 1977 onwards.

Old rentcharges can now be extinguished by making a one off payment under the Act. Any rentcharges that are still in existence after 2037 will be dispensed with completely.

My wife and I have a semi-detached Edwardian house in Bookham. Conveyancing solicitor represented me and Bank of Ireland. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw two entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold with the matching property. I thought I was buying a freehold how can I check?

You should assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Bookham and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with purchasers. You can also enquire as to the situation with the conveyancing lawyer who carried out the work.

I am looking into buying my first house which is in Bookham and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Bookham. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Bookham area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?

Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Bookham. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found

Planning to complete next month on a basement flat in Bookham. Conveyancing lawyers inform me that they are sending me a report within the next couple of days. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Bookham should include some of the following:

Whether the landlord has obligations to ensure rights of quiet enjoyment over your premises and do you know what it means in practice? You should have a good understanding of the building insurance provisions You must be informed what constitutes a Nuisance in the lease Repair and maintenance of the flat Additions to the property

Bookham Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Queries before buying

Many Bookham leasehold apartments will have a service bill for maintenance of the building levied by the management company. Should you buy the apartment you will have to pay this amount, usually quarterly accross the year. This can differ from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for blocks with lifts and large common areas. There will also be a rentcharge to be met yearly, this is usually not a significant sum, say approximately £50-£100 but you need to enquire as sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds. The answer will be useful as a) areas may result in problems for the building as the common areas may begin to deteriorate where services remain unpaid b) if the leaseholders have a dispute with the managing agents you will want to know about it How is the lease structured?