I am planning to acquire a flat and require a conveyancing solicitor in Prestbury who is on the The Mortgage Works approved. Could you point me in the right direction as regards a conveyancing firm?

Our service is limited to being a directory service for firms who wish to listed as being on the approved conveyancing panel for The Mortgage Works in certain locations such as Prestbury. We dont recommend any particular firm.

I am helping my niece sell her house in Prestbury. Will the solicitor arrange the energy performance certificate or should I organise this?

After the demise of Home Information Packs, energy performance certificates was maintained a compulsory component of selling a property. An EPC should be to hand prior to the property being marketed. This is not something that conveyancers ordinarily organise. Where you are instructing a Prestbury conveyancing solicitor they may help arrange EPC’s given their relationships with reputable Prestbury accredited person

I recently had an offer accepted on a house in Prestbury. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their property lawyer. I paid an on account payment of £200. Not long after, the conveyancing practitioner contacted me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Bank of Ireland 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 Bank of Ireland 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.

I've read lots of house buying guides, I note that they all recommend that you should get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local Prestbury solicitor - who is on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. is that correct?

Bank of Ireland will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Bank of Ireland will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your solicitor will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Prestbury postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Bank of Ireland, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Prestbury.

Should our solicitor be raising enquiries about flooding during the conveyancing in Prestbury.

Flooding is a growing risk for solicitors conducting conveyancing in Prestbury. Some people will buy a house in Prestbury, completely aware that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical destruction, if a property is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to obtain a mortgage, adequate building insurance, or sell the premises. Steps can be carried out during the course of a house purchase to forewarn the buyer.

Lawyers are not best placed to offer advice on flood risk, however there are a number of searches that may be initiated by the buyer or on a buyer’s behalf which will figure out the risks in Prestbury. The conventional set of completed inquiry forms supplied to a purchaser’s conveyancer (where the Conveyancing Protocol is adopted) includes a standard question of the seller to determine whether the property has ever been flooded. In the event that flooding has previously occurred and is not disclosed by the vendor, then a buyer could commence a claim for damages resulting from an inaccurate answer. A buyer’s conveyancers may also order an enviro report. This will higlight whether there is any known flood risk. If so, more detailed investigations will need to be made.

In sourcing the internet for the phrase on line conveyancing in Prestbury it brings up many solicitorsin the area. How do I determine which is the right solicitor for me?

The preferential method of seeking a suitable conveyancer is via personal testimonial, so enquire of colleagues and relatives who have purchased a property in Prestbury or the reputable estate agent or mortgage broker. Fees for conveyancing in Prestbury differ, so it's advisable to obtain a minimum of three estimates from different conveyancers. Make sure that you know that the charges are guaranteed not to to be inflated.

My solicitors in Prestbury have advised me that they can not locate my conveyancing file. To assist with my purchase I took out a mortgage with the mortgage company. Is it case that being on the lender conveyancing panel they need to have retained the file for a number of years?

It very much depends from lender to lender but many of the Terms and Conditions of Conveyancing Panel Appointment require the file to be held for a period of 6 years. That being said we have not seen a copy of the mortgage company Conveyancing Panel Terms. It might be worth you contacting the bank directly.