As someone unfamiliar with the St Andrews conveyancing process what is your top tip you can give me concerning the house moving process in St Andrews

Not many law firms or advisers will tell you this but conveyancing in St Andrews and elsewhere in Bristol is an adversarial process. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there is lots of room for conflict between you and other parties involved in the legal transfer of property. For instance, the vendor, estate agent and even potentially a lender. Appointing a solicitor for your conveyancing in St Andrews should not be taken lightly as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the SOLE party in the legal process whose responsibility is to look after your best interests and to keep you safe.

We are witnessing a definite ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone has to be at fault for the process taking so long. You should always trust your lawyer ahead of all other players in the home moving process.

Can you clarify what the consequences are if my lawyer’s firm is suspended from the Kent Reliance Solicitor panel ahead of completing my conveyancing in St Andrews?

First, this is a very rare occurrence. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have to instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by a regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit at a cost.

I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £195,000 and identified one close by in St Andrews I like with a park and railway links in the vicinity, however it only has 61 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in St Andrews for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a short lease?

If you require a mortgage the shortness of the lease will be problematic. Reduce the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass 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 solicitor concerning this.

Taking into account that I will soon part with hundreds of thousands of pounds on a two bedroom apartment in St Andrews I would like to have a conversation with the solicitor about mytransaction in advance of appointing the firm. Is this something that you can arrange?

Absolutely - we would be delighted to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you speaking to the conveyancer due to be conducting your property ownership legalities in St Andrews.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - every client is an important individual, not a file reference. The practices that we put you in touch with believe that the fees you are provided with for residential conveyancing in St Andrews should be the amount on the final invoice that you are charged.

Should one remove a departed person's details from the title deeds for a property in St Andrews?

If a St Andrews property is co-owned and one of the owners dies, their name will not automatically be removed from the title deeds. You are not required to remove their name as in the event of a sale your lawyer would simply need to supply proof why the co proprietor is missing from the contract, such as a grant of probate.

With the aim of making things simpler for the sale of the property you can apply to have the deceased person removed from the title by applying to HMLR with proof of the death. There is no charge from the Registry for this service.