I am approaching an exchange on a house in St Neots and my parents have sent the ten percent deposit to my property lawyer. I am now told that as the deposit has not come from me my solicitor needs to disclose this to my lender. I am advised that, in also acting for the lender he must inform them that the balance of the purchase price is not just from me. I advised the mortgage company regarding my parents' contribution when I applied for the mortgage, so is it really necessary for him to raise this?

The property lawyer is duty bound to clarify with lender to make sure that they are aware that the balance of the purchase price is not from your own resources. Your solicitor can only reveal this to your lender if you agree, failing which, your lawyer must cease to continue acting.

Do lawyers request an advanced payment for my conveyancing in St Neots?

If you are buying a property in St Neots your solicitor will request that you place them with monies to cover the search fees. Generally this is requested to cover the fees of the Local Authority Search. If any deposit is payable against the purchase price then this will be required immediately before exchange of contracts. The closing balance that is due should be sent to your lawyer shortly before completion.

Have completed on a a semi-detached house in St Neots , What is the estimated time for the Land Registry to deal with the formalities evidencing the transfer to my name? My St Neots conveyancing solicitor has been painfully slow, so I want to check that my name is registered.

There is nothing unique about conveyancing in St Neots registration formalities. Rather than based on location, timescales can vary according to who lodges the application, whether it is in order and whether the Land registry must send notices to any other parties. Currently roughly three quarters of submission are fully dealt with within 12 days but occasionally there can be longer hold-ups. Historically registration takes place after the purchaser has moved in to the premises therefore 'speed' is not always primary concern but where it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your conveyancer can communicate with the Registry to express the reasoning for an expedited registration.

I am purchasing a new build house in St Neots benefiting from help to buy. The developers would not move on the price so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The estate agent told me not inform my solicitor about this deal as it could jeopardize my mortgage with the bank. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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.

We own a leasehold flat in St Neots. Conveyancing was finalised in 2011. I have heard that I mustn’t let the the remaining lease term to get too low. Why is that a problem?

St Neots leasehold properties are for a fixed term - often just under one hundred years when they started. However a significant appartments in St Neots were constructed or converted in the 70’s80’s and so these leases now have fewer than 80 years remaining. That may seem like plenty of time however Banks, Building Societies and other mortgage institutions generally require leases to have a minimum of seventy five years left to be mortgageable. This means that when you come to sell the property you will need a lease extension if you are getting close to 75 years. To increase the marketability of your property you should be considering whether to extend your lease well in advance of selling the property. There are also strong financial reasons to doing so before the lease reaches even eighty years as when the lease falls below eighty years the amount you have to pay to extend starts to get a lot more expensive.