I am purchasing a right to buy a flat in St Helier. Can I do my own conveyancing?

Leaving aside the complexities and merits of DIY conveyancing in St Helier you will have to appoint a solicitor on your lender's conveyancing panel to look after their interests. Most people therefore find it easier to let the solicitor act for them and the lender. Furthermore there is minimal cost savings to be made in you doing conveyancing for yourself and another lawyer conducting the conveyancing for the lender. Please feel free to use the search tool to find a lawyer on your lender panel in St Helier.

I am buying a new build house in St Helier with a mortgage from Birmingham Midshires. The builders refused to reduce the amount so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The house builders rep advised me not disclose to my solicitor about this deal as it may affect my loan with the bank. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

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.

Due to the encouragement of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in St Helier ahead of retaining lawyers. I have been informed that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. My surveyor advised that some lenders will refuse to give a loan on this type of home.

It depends who your proposed lender is. Santander has different requirements from Birmingham Midshires. If you e-mail us we can check via the relevant bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in St Helier. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in St Helier to see if the conveyancing will be more expensive.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in St Helier from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the frustration in leasehold conveyancing in St Helier can be reduced if you get in touch lawyers the minute you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ lawyers.
If you have the benefit of shareholding in the Management Company, you should make sure that you hold the original share certificate. Arranging a re-issued share certificate is often a time consuming process and frustrates many a St Helier conveyancing transaction. Where a duplicate share certificate is required, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (where applicable) for this at the earliest opportunity. If there is a history of any disputes with your freeholder or managing agents it is essential that these are settled before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where a dispute is ongoing. You may need to swallow your pride and pay any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled. In the event that you altered the property did you need the Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? St Helier leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord approving such changes. Should you dont have the approvals to hand you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your conveyancer before hand. Some St Helier leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the annual service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers.

Following months of negotiations we cannot agree with our landlord on how much the lease extension should cost for our flat in St Helier. Does the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal have jurisdiction to calculate the appropriate figures?

if there is a missing freeholder or where there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant statutes it is possible to make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to judgment on the amount due.

An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement case for a St Helier residence is Buchanan Court 39 Vernon Road in April 2010. the Tribunal assessed that the premium payable for the freehold of the block should be £44,000. This case related to 2 flats. The remaining number of years on the lease was 66.67 years.

Online reading suggests that St Helier solicitors are more costly than licensed conveyancers in St Helier to use when buying a property. So is it better if I use a conveyancer or a solicitor if I am purchasing for my home move in St Helier.

When it comes to conveyancing in St Helier the costs are unlikely to vary dramatically depending on whether the legal expert is a licenced conveyancer or solicitor.