The Southwell conveyancing firm that I recently instructed on my house acquisition in Southwell have suddenly shut down. I chose them because I had to have a solicitor on the conveyancing panel and my family Southwell lawyer was not. I cut them a cheque for £250 in advance. What do I do now?

Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then let them know immediately so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers should be in a position to assist.

I am buying a new build flat in Southwell. 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 legal work.

Set out below is a sample of a few leasehold new build enquiries that you may expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Southwell

If there are lifts in the building, please confirm that the owners of flats on the ground and basement floors will not be required to contribute towards the cost of maintenance and renewal. There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. Please provide evidence that the form of Lease proposed has been approved by the Land Registry. Please confirm the Lease plans are surveyor prepared.

Due to the encouragement of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in Southwell ahead of retaining conveyancers. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold aspect to the house. The surveyor advised that some mortgage companies tend not grant a loan on a flying freehold property.

It varies from the lender to lender. Lloyds has different instructions for example to Nationwide. Should you wish to telephone us we can check via the relevant mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Southwell. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in Southwell especially if they are familiar with such properties in Southwell.

I was pointed in your direction by a couple of local selling agents in Southwell to locate a conveyancer on your site. Is there a financial upside for Estate Agents to promote your services over a competitor’s?

We don’t offer any financial incentive for sending work to this site. We thought it would be too underhand to pay a commission because a client could think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not receiving any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.

The conveyancers handling our conveyancing in Southwell has forwarded papers to review that state the property is unregistered with epitome documents. How can it be that the property not registred at HMLR?

Whilst most properties in Southwell are now registered with HM Land Registry there are still a few that remain unregistered. Any property in Southwell that has been transferred since the late 1980’s will have been registered at the HM Land Registry under the compulsory ‘first registration’ scheme. However, if a Southwell property has not changed hands in that time then it’s likely the old fashioned title deeds will be the only evidence of ownership.Plenty of Southwell conveyancing lawyers should be able to handle this type of conveyancing but in the event that uncertainty exists the conventional advice these days is for the seller’s conveyancer to register the title first and then sell - this undoubtedly result in a prolonged conveyancing.