Should my solicitor be making enquiries concerning flooding as part of the conveyancing in Hirwaun.

Flooding is a growing risk for conveyancers dealing with homes in Hirwaun. Plenty of people will purchase a property in Hirwaun, fully aware that at some time, it may be flooded. However, aside from the physical damage, where a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to obtain a mortgage, adequate insurance cover, or sell the premises. Steps can be carried out during the course of a house purchase to forewarn the buyer.

Lawyers are not best placed to impart advice on flood risk, however there are a numerous checks that may be undertaken by the purchaser or on a buyer’s behalf which will figure out the risks in Hirwaun. The standard property information forms supplied to a buyer’s solicitor (where the Conveyancing Protocol is adopted) contains a standard question of the owner to find out whether the premises has suffered from flooding. In the event that flooding has previously occurred and is not disclosed by the seller, then a buyer may bring a claim for damages stemming from an misleading reply. The buyer’s solicitors should also commission an environmental report. This will disclose if there is a recorded flood risk. If so, additional investigations will need to be made.

I own a 4 bedroom Victorian house in Hirwaun. Conveyancing lawyer acted for me and Barnsley Building Society. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw a couple of entries: the first freehold, another for leasehold with the matching property. Is it worth asking Barnsley Building Society to clarify?

You should review 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 proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Hirwaun and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they sell they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with lenders. You can also enquire as to the position with the conveyancing lawyer who conducted the purchase.

I am looking for a ground for flat up to £245,000 and identified one close by in Hirwaun I like with amenity areas and transport links in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 49 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Hirwaun for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?

Should you need a home loan the shortness of the lease will be an issue. Reduce the price by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current owner has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you may ask them to start the process of the extension and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this.

I am a negotiator for a long established estate agent office in Hirwaun where we see a number of flat sales put at risk due to short leases. I have received conflicting advice from local Hirwaun conveyancing firms. Please can you shed some light as to whether the owner of a flat can start the lease extension formalities for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has been the owner 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 buyer can avoid having to wait 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed before, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

An alternative approach is to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord 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 buyer.

I own a garden flat in Hirwaun, conveyancing having been completed in 2006. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Similar properties in Hirwaun with over 90 years remaining are worth £190,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 invoiced every year. The lease expires on 21st October 2087

With 62 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £17,100 and £19,800 plus professional fees.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure in the absence of detailed investigations. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There are no doubt additional concerns that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward based on this information before getting professional advice.

My wife and I are buying a studio flat in Hirwaun. At the point of instructing our lawyer, they told us that they were on all mainstream bank panels. Our mortgage broker called yesterday to say that they are not on the HSBC approved list. Were it to be true, what should we do? Should we simply pick a new conveyancer that is on their approved list or should we cover the costs for separate representation, with HSBC appointing their own preferred property lawyer.

Where you are purchasing a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is standard for the purchaser’s lawyers to also act for the purchaser's lender. In order to act for a bank or building society a lawyer has to be on that lender's list of approved lawyers. An application has to be made by the conveyancer to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the lawyer has to meet. Some banks now insist their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer should call HSBC 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 HSBC's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Hirwaun solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another solicitor into the equation.