I am acquiring a house mortgage free in New Forest. I have lived for the last 20 years in New Forest. Conveyancing searches are a lot of money. Given that I have knowledge of the road and vicinity intimately must I have all the conveyancing searches?

Provided that you do not need a mortgage, then almost all of the New Forest conveyancing searches are non-obligatory. Your lawyer will try and steer you, perhaps strongly, that you should have searches completed, but he is duty bound to take that path of advice. One thing to consider; if you are going to sell the house one day, it will likely be be of relevance to your prospective buyer what the searches determine. There are plenty of instances where houses with day to day issues can still reveal adverse search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in New Forest should provide you some practical advice in this regard.

I am buying a new build house in New Forest benefiting from help to buy. The sellers refused to move on the price so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The sale representative advised me not inform my conveyancer about the deal as it could jeopardize my loan with Accord Mortgages Ltd. Is this normal?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.

Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.

Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.

I have been on the look out for a flat up to £235,500 and found one round the corner in New Forest I like with a park and transport links in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 51 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in New Forest in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a lease with such few years left?

If you need a home loan that many years will be a potential deal breaker. Reduce the price by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for at least 2 years you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer concerning this matter.

Do I need to be suspicious about brokers that I am dealing with are encouraging me to use an online conveyancing firm rather than a High Street New Forest conveyancing firm?

As with many professional services, often referrals from family and friends can be extremely useful or valuable. Nevertheless there are numerous players in a conveyancing matter; estate agents, financial adviser and lenders might all put forward lawyers to select. Sometimes the conveyancers might be known to one of the organisations as one of the best in their field, but sometimes there may be a commercial relationship behind the recommendation. You have the discretion to appoint your preferred lawyer. Don't forget that some mortgage providers have an approved list of conveyancers you have to use for the mortgage related work in your transaction.

I need to find a conveyancing solicitor for some conveyancing in New Forest. I happened to land on a web site which looks to be the perfect answer If there is a chance to get all formalities completed via phone that would be preferable. Do I need to be concerned? What should out be looking out for?

As usual with these online conveyancers you need to read ALL the small print - did you notice the extra charge for dealing with the mortgage?