My husband and I are buying a brand new apartment in Hucknall and my lawyer is advising me that she is duty bound to the mortgage company to reveal incentives from the seller. I am on a tight deadline to exchange and I have no desire to prolong the conveyancing. Is my lawyer right?

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

I used Wolstenholmes several years ago for my conveyancing in Hucknall. I now require my papers but cannot find the solicitor. What do I do?

Do call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Hucknall of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously hired, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £235,500 and identified one round the corner in Hucknall I like with amenity areas and transport links nearby, the downside is that it only has 51 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Hucknall for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake buying a lease with such few years left?

Should you need a home loan the shortness of the lease will be problematic. Reduce the price by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you can ask them to start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer about this matter.

We're first time buyers - agreed a price, yet the agent has warned us that the owners will only move forward if we instruct their recommended lawyers as they want an ‘expedited deal’. We would rather use a high street solicitor used to conveyancing in Hucknall

It is unlikely the vendors are driving this. If they desire ‘a quick sale', taking such a hostile approach to a motivated buyer is likely to cause more damage than good. Contact the owners directly and explain that (a)you are keen to buy (b)you are ready to progress, with mortgage lined up © you are chain free (d) you intend to proceed fast (e)but you intend to use your own,trusted Hucknall conveyancing solicitors - not the ones that will earn their estate agent a commission or hit his conveyancing targets demanded by HQ.

I have just appointed agents to market my 2 bed apartment in Hucknall. Conveyancing is yet to be initiated, however I have just had a yearly maintenance charge demand – what should I do?

Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should discharge the invoice as you normally would as all rents and maintenance payments should be apportioned as part of the financial calculations for completion monies, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the purchaser for the period running from after the completion date to the subsequent invoice date. Most managing agents will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am the registered owner of a leasehold flat in Hucknall, conveyancing was carried out in 1995. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Equivalent properties in Hucknall with an extended lease are worth £165,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £45 per annum. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 50

With only 50 years unexpired we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £36,100 and £41,800 as well as 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 the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional issues that need to be taken into account and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not take any other action based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.