Having sold my house in St Werburghs last October yet the purchaser is e-mailing me complaining that their lawyer needs to hear from mine. What are the post completion sale formalities now that I have sold?

Following your house sale your lawyer should send the transfer deeds and all of the paperwork to the purchaser's lawyers. Where relevant, your conveyancer should also evidence that the home loan has been discharged to the buyers solicitors. There are no post completion steps specific conveyancing in St Werburghs.

Should my solicitor be raising questions about flooding as part of the conveyancing in St Werburghs.

The risk of flooding is if increasing concern for conveyancers conducting conveyancing in St Werburghs. There are those who buy a house in St Werburghs, completely aware that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical damage, where a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, satisfactory building insurance, or sell the property. There are steps that can be taken during the course of a property purchase to forewarn the purchaser.

Solicitors are not qualified to give advice on flood risk, but there are a number of searches that can be undertaken by the buyer or on a buyer’s behalf which should figure out the risks in St Werburghs. The conventional set of property information forms sent to a buyer’s lawyer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) contains a usual inquiry of the owner to find out if the premises has suffered from flooding. If the property has been flooded in past which is not revealed by the vendor, then a buyer could issue a claim for damages as a result of such an inaccurate answer. A buyer’s conveyancers will also conduct an enviro search. This will reveal if there is a recorded flood risk. If so, additional investigations will need to be conducted.

I purchased my apartment on 1 February and my personal details are still not on the land registry website. Need I be worried? My conveyancing solicitor in St Werburghs advises it should be formalised in a couple of weeks. Are transfers in St Werburghs particularly slow to register?

There is nothing unique when it comes to conveyancing in St Werburghs registration formalities. As opposed to being determined by geographic area, timeframes can differ according to who lodges the application, whether there are errors and whether the Land registry need to notify any other persons or bodies. At present roughly three quarters of such applications are fully addressed within 12 days but occasionally there can be protracted hold-ups. Historically registration is effected once the new owner has moved in to the premises therefore an expedited registration is not usually top priority yet where it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your lawyers could communicate with the Registry to express the reasoning for an expedited registration.

I have been on the look out for a ground for flat up to £305k and identified one round the corner in St Werburghs I like with open areas and railway links in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 49 years on the lease. There is not much else in St Werburghs in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?

If you require a home loan that many years may be problematic. Reduce the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing owner has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you may request that they start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer regarding this.

I need to instruct a conveyancing lawyer in St Werburghs for my home move. Can I see a firm’s complaints history with the profession’s regulator?

Anyone can read documented Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) decisions resulting from inquisitions from 2008 onwards. Go to Check a solicitor's record. To find information Pre 2008, or to check a solicitors history, phone 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and 09.30 - 18.00 Tuesday. For non-uk callers, dial +44 (0)121 329 6800. The SRA could recorded call for training reasons.