I am acquiring a brand new apartment in Cotham and my lawyer is advising me that she has to the mortgage company to disclose incentives from the seller. The Estate Agents are hassling me to sign contracts and I have no desire to delay the conveyancing. Is my lawyer right?

You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your solicitor. A precondition to being on a bank panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.

When can the exchange of contracts occur in purchase conveyancing in Cotham and am I required to be at the lawyers office?

If you are near to one of the conveyancing solicitors in Cotham you are invited in to sign documents. However, the lender approved solicitors we work with provide a national conveyancing service and give as equally detailed and professional a job for you when communicating with you digitally. The executing of the sale agreement is not the critical part. A signed contract is necessary for the conveyancer to officially exchange when the time is right, which is ordinarily shortly after signing. The exchange process is is usually a five minute process, although where a long "chain" is involved, since the process requires the relevant party's solicitor (not necessarily a conveyancing solicitor in Cotham)to be in the office available at the end of the phone to exchange contracts.

I am planning on selling our home in Cotham and the buyers lawyers are claiming that there is a risk of it being built land that was not decontaminated. Any high street Cotham conveyancer would know that there is no such problem. It does beg the question why the purchasers are using a factory type conveyancing practice rather than a conveyancing solicitor in Cotham. Having lived in Cotham for many years we know that this is a non issue. Should we contact our local Authority to seek confirmation that there is no issue.

It sounds as though you may have a conveyancing firm currently acting for you. What do they say? You need to 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 life insurance to cover that same illness)

I am buying a new build flat in Cotham. Conveyancing is daunting at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. What sort of enquires would be asked in new build legal work.

Set out below are examples of a few leasehold new build enquiries that you can expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Cotham

Investor purchasers must be able to freely grant unsecured tenancies at market rents without requiring any consents. If there are lifts in the building, please confirm that the owners of flats on the ground and basement floors will not be required to contribute towards the cost of maintenance and renewal. Please supply evidence that the form of Lease proposed has been approved by the Land Registry. The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme. There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants.

What are the compelling advantages to using a local solicitor in Cotham

Home movers in Cotham decide on using a local conveyancing practitioner so that they can pop into the firm’s offices if they have questions, and to sign paperwork rather than depending on the Royal Mail.

Some would say that there exists a slight benefit in selecting a conveyancing practitioner local to the house you are planning to purchase, due to the in-depth knowledge of the region and possible local concerns - nevertheless this is moot. Most conveyancers carry out their work through email and could be practically anywhere.