Completion of my purchase has taken place for my property in Moulton. Conveyancing was of an acceptable standard but I would like to complain about the lender. How does one go about formally complaining?

Almost all lenders have complaints procedures. Your first port of call should be one of the lender’s branches or the Customer Services Department at head office. We understand that complaints to a lender are resolved very quickly. If you feel the matter is not resolved you can write to Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR with full details of your complaint.

I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Moulton. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an upfront payment of £225. A few days later, the conveyancer contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Yorkshire BS 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 Yorkshire BS 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.

Planning on purchasing a maisonette in Moulton. I have received an online quote from a licenced conveyancer, which states: "There will be no charge for dealing with the Building Society if you are obtaining a mortgage". I take this to mean that there will be no additional fee if the solicitor is on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel. I wanted to make sure it means there will be no additional fees for dealing with the mortgage.

They are simply saying that the cost for acting for the lender is included in the fee being quoted. It is worth you checking that the Moulton property lawyer is on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel.

We are purchasing a house and the conveyancer has raised the issue of Chancel Repair for which the property may be obligated to contribute to as it falls into the area of such a church. He has mentioned insurance. Is this really required for conveyancing in Moulton

Unless a prior acquisition of the property completed after 12 October 2013 you can assume that solicitors carrying out conveyancing in Moulton to remain encouraging a chancel search and or insurance against a claim.

I am buying a new build flat in Moulton. Conveyancing is necessary evil 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 conveyancing.

Here is a sample of a selection of leasehold new build questions that you may expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Moulton

Where there is an Undertaking being granted there is the risk of forfeiture of the Headlease subject to relief if one or more of the Underlessees are willing to accept the original Head Lessee’s obligations as otherwise relief will be denied to the Underlessees. The only alternatives are the Head Lessor agreeing not to forfeit the Headlease or the Head Lessee guaranteeing to the Underlessees that it will not be in breach of the Headlease. Will control of the Management Company (if any) be handed over to purchasers on completion of the last sale or earlier? Investor purchasers must be able to freely grant unsecured tenancies at market rents without requiring any consents. 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.

I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £195,000 and found one close by in Moulton I like with a park and station nearby, however it's only got 61 years on the lease. There is not much else in Moulton for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a lease with such few years left?

If you require a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be an issue. Discount the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the property for at least twenty four months you could request that they start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this matter.

Can you provide any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Moulton with the intention of saving time on the sale process?

• Much of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in Moulton can be reduced where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information needed by the buyers’ lawyers.
If there is a history of any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are settled prior to the flat being put on the market. The purchasers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You may have to bite the bullet and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to present the dispute as over as opposed to ongoing. If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example laid down wooden flooring? Most leases in Moulton state that internal structural alterations or laying down wooden flooring calls for a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such works. If you fail to have the consents in place do not contact the landlord without checking with your solicitor before hand. A minority of Moulton leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the annual service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.

Moulton Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should ask Prior to buying

Many Moulton leasehold flats will have a service bill for the upkeep of the block levied by the landlord. Where you buy the flat you will have to pay this contribution, usually periodically during the year. This may differ from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large common grounds. There will also be a ground rent to be met yearly, normally this is not a large figure, say approximately £25-£75 but you should to check as sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds. What is the length of the lease? Are any of leasehold owners in dispute over their service charge liability?