The owners of the property we are looking to purchase have appointed a conveyancing practitioner in Morecambe who has recommended a exclusivity agreement with a payment 10k. Are such agreements sensible?

This type of agreement is unusual in Morecambe, conveyancers are often found to direct clients away from them as they detract from the main conveyancing focus and if you end up losing your deposit then the lawyer at best left with an upset client and at worst a litigious one. In addition, there is no guarantee that just because the proprietor has executed a lock out agreement they will complete the sale with you. They may be tempted to break the agreement if they are offered sufficient incentive to do so because a wronged claimant with the benefit of a lockout agreement will still be obliged establish consequential losses from the breach and this may not equalise the extra amount that the owner may obtain by breaking the contract, however morally unworthy it undoubtedly is.

A friend recommended that where I am purchasing in Morecambe I should ask my conveyancer to execute a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?

This is a search is occasionally included in the estimate for your Morecambe conveyancing searches. It is a large report of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing significant information about Morecambe around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Morecambe Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Morecambe Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data regarding Morecambe.

It has been five months since my purchase conveyancing in Morecambe concluded. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £200,000 when infact I paid £180,000. Why the discrepancy?

The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the residence from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.

Am I better off to instruct a Morecambe conveyancing solicitor who is local to the property I am hoping to buy? We have a good friend who can execute the legal formalities but they are based 200miles away.

The primary upside of using a high street Morecambe conveyancing firm is that you can drop in to execute paperwork, present your ID and pester them if necessary. They will also have local intelligence which is a bonus. That being said nothing is more important than finding someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If if people you trust used your friend and on the whole were content that should surpass using an unknown Morecambe conveyancing solicitor solely due to them being round the corner.

Planning to complete next month on a garden flat in Morecambe. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they are sending me a report next week. Are there areas in the report that I should be focusing on?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Morecambe should include some of the following:

Setting out your rights in relation to common areas in the block.E.G., does the lease contain a right of way over a path or staircase? You should know whether the lease permits you to alter or upgrade anything in the property- you should know whether it applies to all alterations or limited to structural alteration, and whether licences for alterations is required Does the lease prevent you from letting out the flat, or having a home office for business Your solicitors should enable you to have an understanding of the insurance provisions Where does the liability rest for maintaining the window frames

I purchased a 2 bed flat in Morecambe, conveyancing was carried out May 2003. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Equivalent properties in Morecambe with over 90 years remaining are worth £186,000. The ground rent is £55 per annum. The lease runs out on 21st October 2079

With 53 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £27,600 and £31,800 plus plus your own and the landlord's "reasonable" professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we are not able to supply a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. You should not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be other concerns that need to be taken into account and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action placing reliance on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.