My wife and I are acquiring a newly built duplex in Nottingham and my lawyer is telling me that she has to the lender to reveal incentives from the seller. I am under pressure to exchange and I don't want to prolong the conveyancing. Is my lawyer right?

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

It is a dozen years since I bought my property in Nottingham. Conveyancing solicitors have now been appointed on the sale but I am unable to track down my deeds. Is this a problem?

You need not be too concerned. First the deeds may be kept by the lender or they may be in the possession of the conveyancers who handled your purchase. Secondly in most cases the land will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you own the property by your conveyancing lawyers obtaining current official copies of the land registers. Most conveyancing in Nottingham involves registered property but in the rare situation where your property is unregistered it adds to the complexity but is not insurmountable.

My wife and I have recently appointed a conveyancing solicitor in Nottingham. I I would like to check whether they are on the Skipton Building Society conveyancing panel. Can you or the lender confirm if they are on the panel?

You should e-mail your solicitor and enquire whether they can act for the bank. Otherwise you can get in touch with Skipton Building Society who may be able to assist.

I am purchasing my first flat in Nottingham with a mortgage from Alliance & Leicester . The developers would not move on the amount so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of extras instead. The estate agent suggested that I not disclose to my lawyer about this side-deal as it could impact my loan with the bank. Should I keep quiet?.

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.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a ground for flat up to £305k and identified one close by in Nottingham I like with open areas and railway links in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 51 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Nottingham suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake buying a short lease?

Should you require a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be a potential deal breaker. Reduce the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing proprietor has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you can ask them to start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer about this.