I have given 8 weeks notice to my current landlord and have to be out of my rented property in Sherwood by the end of next month. Conveyancing for my house purchase is underway. Is it possible to complete in six weeks as I wish to avoid having to move into short term accommodation?

It is unwise to provide notice for your letting unless your lawyer suggests that you should. If you have not previously done so, update to your lawyer and ask them to they chase the sellers solicitors, try to an agreed time frame that all parties will look to achieve

I am buying a garden flat in Sherwood. How practical is it for me to do the conveyancing?

Leaving aside the complexities and merits of DIY conveyancing in Sherwood 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 Sherwood.

I just bought a property at auction in Sherwood. Conveyancing is needed. What are my next steps?

Now that you have for all intents and purposes signed on the dotted line you will need to retain a conveyancing practitioner as a matter of priority as you are facing a pending a fixed date to complete the conveyancing. All auction property will have an associated auction set of papers. This will include most,if not all of the paperwork that your solicitor requires. Where you are dealing with leasehold property the legal pack may provide a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and associated conveyancing paperwork specific to a leasehold property. You must pass this on to your appointed conveyancing solicitor ASAP. You also need to ensure that your finances are organised to complete the transaction on the set completion date.

I currently have a mortgage with Barclays for my property in Sherwood. Conveyancing was finalised 12 months ago. If I am intending to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform Barclays?

Barclays must be informed of your intention before letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Barclays’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Barclays directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Barclays conveyancing panel lawyer.

I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Sherwood. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their solicitor. I paid an on account payment of £175. Shortly after, the conveyancer contacted me to say that they were not on the Skipton conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?

You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Skipton panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.

Should our solicitor be raising enquiries concerning flooding during the conveyancing in Sherwood.

The risk of flooding is if increasing concern for conveyancers dealing with homes in Sherwood. Plenty of people will buy a property in Sherwood, fully aware that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical damage, if a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to obtain a mortgage, adequate building insurance, or sell the property. Steps can be carried out during the course of a house purchase to forewarn the purchaser.

Lawyers are not qualified to offer advice on flood risk, but there are a number of searches that can be undertaken by the buyer or by their conveyancers which can give them a better appreciation of the risks in Sherwood. The standard information given to a purchaser’s conveyancer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) includes a standard inquiry of the vendor to find out whether the property has suffered from flooding. In the event that flooding has previously occurred and is not notified by the vendor, then a purchaser could bring a compensation claim as a result of such an inaccurate response. A purchaser’s conveyancers should also carry out an enviro report. This will indicate if there is any known flood risk. If so, additional investigations will need to be made.

I'm purchasing a new build house in Sherwood with a loan from Virgin Money. The builders refused to move on the price so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The sale representative suggested that I not to tell my conveyancer about this deal as it will put at risk my loan with Virgin Money. 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.