Can you recommend a Leeds Building Society approved Forest of Dean conveyancing practice that can complete within under 3 weeks? Am I best advised to choose a local Forest of Dean conveyancer or an online conveyancer?

We can recommend some very good Forest of Dean conveyancing firms. Another option is to visit the main road in Forest of Dean. Visit a couple of firms and request to see a conveyancing solicitor for a costs illustration. Explain your requirements together with the reasons and ask for a commitment on speed. Select the lawyer that appears most efficient.

Should our conveyancer be making enquiries concerning flooding during the conveyancing in Forest of Dean.

Flooding is a growing risk for lawyers carrying out conveyancing in Forest of Dean. There are those who acquire a house in Forest of Dean, fully aware that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical damage, if a property is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, adequate building insurance, or dispose of the property. Steps can be carried out during the course of a house purchase to forewarn the buyer.

Solicitors are not best placed to offer advice on flood risk, but there are a numerous checks that can be initiated by the purchaser or on a buyer’s behalf which will figure out the risks in Forest of Dean. The standard completed inquiry forms supplied to a purchaser’s conveyancer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) contains a standard question of the owner to determine if the premises has suffered from flooding. If flooding has previously occurred and is not revealed by the seller, then a purchaser may bring a compensation claim as a result of such an incorrect answer. The buyer’s solicitors will also carry out an enviro report. This should disclose whether there is any known flood risk. If so, further investigations should be initiated.

I have recentlydiscovered that Arc property Solicitors have been shut down. They conducted my conveyancing in Forest of Dean for a purchase of a leasehold apartment 10 months ago. How can I check that my home is registered correctly in the name of the former proprietor?

The quickest way to see if the premises is in your name, you can make a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Forest of Dean conveyancing specialists.

Am I better off to instruct a Forest of Dean conveyancing solicitor who is local to the property I am purchasing? An old friend can deal with the legal work but his firm is located a couple of hundredmiles drive away.

The primary upside of using a high street Forest of Dean conveyancing practice is that you can visit the firm to execute documents, present your identification documents and pester them if necessary. Having local Forest of Dean know how is a bonus. However nothing is more important than finding someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If other friends have used your friend and the majority were content that must trump using an unknown Forest of Dean conveyancing solicitor solely due to them being Forest of Dean based.

I have been advised by numerous friends that it can take six to eight weeks for Forest of Dean conveyancing to complete.This was a month ago. The draft contract was only sent from the vendors property lawyer a couple of days ago so does the clock start running now?

You need to be realistic concerning timelines. Moving home in Forest of Dean usually takes about ten weeks. This timeframe is not due to property lawyer being slow and purposely delay matters. The level of money involved in purchasing any property is so high, the purchaser's lawyer needing to carry out a wide range of questions, searches and supplemental checks to protect the purchaser and their mortgage company (if there is to be a home loan) from expensive, avoidable problems. These checks involves obtaining information from an array of third parties, for example other property lawyer, local councils, private companies, lenders. Many of these are efficient. Others are not. Finally, it doesn't matter how quickly your property lawyer do their job, if the people you are purchasing from or are selling to aren't ready, nothing can move forward until they are up to speed.