My apartment in Ironbridge is up for sale and I have accepted an offer. Will the property lawyer have to be required to be on the TSB conveyancing panel in order to deal with the discharge of my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the TSB conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their conditions fairly frequently at the moment.

The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build apartment in Ironbridge. Conveyancing is daunting at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. Can you give me some examples of some of the questions asked in new build conveyancing.

Set out below is a sample of a few leasehold new build questions that you can expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Ironbridge

The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme. The Lease must contain a provision on behalf of the Vendor to pay the service charges in respect of unoccupied units in order to ensure that all services can be provided. There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. Will the freehold then be transferred for a nominal consideration (not exceeding £100) to the Management Company?

Am I best advised to choose a Ironbridge conveyancing lawyer who is local to the property I am hoping to buy? An old friend can carry out the legal formalities but her office is over three hundred miles drive away.

The primary upside of using a high street Ironbridge conveyancing firm is that you can pop in to sign paperwork, hand in your identification documents and pester them where appropriate. They will also have local insight which is a benefit. However it's more important to get someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If you know people who instructed your friend and they were impressed that should trump using an unknown Ironbridge conveyancing solicitor solely due to them being local.

Back In 2006, I bought a leasehold flat in Ironbridge. Conveyancing and Platform Home Loans Ltd mortgage went though with no issue. A letter has just been received from someone saying they have taken over the freehold. Attached was a ground rent demand for rent dating back to 1998. The conveyancing solicitor in Ironbridge who acted for me is not around. Any advice?

First contact the Land Registry to make sure that this person is in fact the new freeholder. You do not need to incur the fees of a Ironbridge conveyancing lawyer to do this as you can do this on the Land Registry website for £3. Rest assured that regardless, even if this is the rightful freeholder, under the Limitation Act 1980 no more than 6 years of rent can be collected.

I invested in buying a 2 bed flat in Ironbridge, conveyancing formalities finalised February 2011. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Comparable flats in Ironbridge with a long lease are worth £171,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £50 invoiced annually. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2104

With just 79 years unexpired we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £7,600 and £8,800 as well as plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" 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 without more comprehensive due diligence. You should not use the figures in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. 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 placing reliance on this information before getting professional advice.

My husband and I are purchasing a four bedroom apartmentin Ironbridge with a residential mortgage from a bank. We have selected a conveyancer in Ironbridge however our bank inform us now that she’s not on their "panel". We have to appoint one of the our lender panel firms or stay with our Ironbridge conveyancer and pay for one of their panel ones to represent our mortgage company. We feel as though this is unjust; is there anything we can do?

No, not really. The lender mortgage offered to you is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the mortgage company's conveyancing panel. Until recently, most mortgage companies had large numbers of law firms on their panels, including almost all conveyancing solicitors in Ironbridge : a mortgagee could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. A further alternative is for your lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for your mortgage company.