I recently had an offer agreed on a house in East Riding Villages. My financial adviser suggested a lawyer. I paid an advanced payment of £200. A couple of days later, the property lawyer contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Principality 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 Principality 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.

After shopping around on the internet I have found a East Riding Villages lawyer having made sure that they are on the RBS conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?

RBS will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually RBS 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 East Riding Villages 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.

At last I have had an offer on an apartment in East Riding Villages agreed to, but there is a chain. The vendors have offered on somewhere, but it’s not been accepted yet, and have viewings of other properties in the pipeline. I have selected a nearby conveyancing solicitor in East Riding Villages. What should be my next step? When should I get the mortgage application with Nationwide started?

It is normal to have anxieties where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket too early (home loan application is in the region of one thousand pounds, then valuation, East Riding Villages conveyancing search charges, etc). The first course of action is to check that your property lawyer is on the Nationwide approved list. Concerning the subsequent stages this very much dictated by the specifics of your transaction, desire for this property and on the state of the market. In a buoyant market many purchasers will apply for a home loan with Nationwide and arrange for the valuation and only if it was satisfactory would they pay their lawyer to move forward with the conveyancing in East Riding Villages.

How does conveyancing in East Riding Villages differ for new build properties?

Most buyers of new build residence in East Riding Villages approach us having been asked by the developer to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the residence is ready to move into. This is because builders in East Riding Villages typically buy the site, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancers as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are accustomed to new build conveyancing in East Riding Villages or who has acted in the same development.

Hoping to buy a property located in East Riding Villages and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about East Riding Villages. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the East Riding Villages area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?

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

I've found a house that appears to be perfect, at a great price which is making it more attractive. I have subsequently found out that it's a leasehold rather than freehold. I am assuming that there are issues buying a house with a leasehold title in East Riding Villages. Conveyancing solicitors have are about to be appointed. Will they explain the issues?

Most houses in East Riding Villages are freehold rather than leasehold. This is one of the situations where having a local conveyancer who is familiar with the area who can assist with the conveyancing process. We note that you are buying in East Riding Villages so you should seriously consider shopping around for a East Riding Villages conveyancing solicitor and be sure that they are used to transacting on leasehold houses. First you will need to check the number of years remaining. As a leaseholder you will not be at liberty to do whatever you want to the property. The lease comes with conditions for example requiring the landlord’sconsent to carry out changes to the property. It may be necessary to pay a contribution towards the upkeep of the communal areas where the house is located on an estate. Your lawyer should report to you on the legal implications.

I acquired a leasehold flat in East Riding Villages, conveyancing was carried out in 2009. 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? Corresponding properties in East Riding Villages with an extended lease are worth £185,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 invoiced annually. The lease ends on 21st October 2086

With 60 years unexpired the likely cost is going to range between £20,000 and £23,000 plus costs.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to advice on the actual costs in the absence of detailed due diligence. You should not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt other issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action based on this information without first getting professional advice.

Myself and my partner have recently had an offer accepted on a apartment and had an appointment on Wednesday with the Post Office for the mortgage. They have informed me that when it comes to appointing a conveyancer that if they are not on their approved panel of solicitors then we will have to pay out an additional fee of £200. This is because they would then have to select a solicitor to act for them as well as the one we appoint on our behalf and we assume responsibility for their costs. I have asked the Post Office to send me with a list so I can seek quotes only from their approved conveyancers but was told they dont have such a list to hand over. Is there a simple way of finding out who is on a lender panel?

Ask the Post Office what their panel criteria is for a solicitor.Thereafter ask the lawyer of your choice whether they meet the criteria and have they acted on loans for the Post Office in the past. Where the answer to those is yes, then just clarify this with the Post Office. Alternatively please make use of our search facility and we may be able to find you a lawyer in East Riding Villages on the approved list for the Post Office.