My husband and I are acquiring a newly built apartment in Snaith and my lawyer is informing me that she is duty bound to the mortgage company to disclose incentives from the developer. I am on a tight deadline to sign contracts and I have no desire to prolong deal. is my lawyer playing by the book?

You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancing practitioner. A precondition to being on a mortgage company panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook provisions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.

My uncle passed away last year and as sole heir and executor I was left the house in Snaith. The house had a relatively small loan remaining of approximately £5k. I want to transfer the title deeds into my name whilst I re-mortgage to HSBC, pay off the mortgage. Is this allowed?

If you intend to refinance then HSBC will insist on your using a conveyancer on the HSBC conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your HSBC conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the HSBC mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.

I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold element on a house I put an offer in last month in what was supposed to be a quick, chain free conveyancing. Snaith is the location of the property. Can you offer any guidance?

Flying freeholds in Snaith are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Snaith you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Snaith may decide that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold premises.

How easy is it to transfer to a new firm as I have to choose a firm on the TSB conveyancing panel. I was using a high street conveyancing solicitor in Snaith five minutes from me but she is not accepted by TSB

We will our best to assist in finding you a conveyancing solicitor in Snaith on the TSB panel. Please note that the solicitors that we on the directory do not pay us a referral fee if you instruct them and are fully regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority who oversee all conveyancing solicitors in Snaith. In making use of search facility on this site, you can compare and instruct different solicitors and conveyancers both nationally and in Snaith.

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Snaith from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Snaith can be avoided where you appoint lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the buyers’ solicitors.
If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should ensure that you have the original share document. Obtaining a replacement share certificate can be a time consuming formality and slows down many a Snaith home move. Where a reissued share is necessary, do contact the company officers or managing agents (if applicable) for this as soon as possible. If you have had any disputes with your landlord or managing agents it is very important that these are resolved before the property is put on the market. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or resolve the dispute prior to completion of the sale. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to reveal the dispute as historic as opposed to unresolved. A minority of Snaith leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this applies to your lease, you should notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers obtain financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are financially capable of paying the annual service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the buyers or their solicitors.

I acquired a split level flat in Snaith, conveyancing formalities finalised 6 years ago. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Comparable flats in Snaith with over 90 years remaining are worth £181,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £55 charged once a year. The lease comes to an end on 21st October 2077

You have 51 years left to run we estimate the premium for your lease extension to be between £30,400 and £35,200 as well as costs.

The suggested premium range that we have given is a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more comprehensive investigations. Do not use the figures in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be additional issues that need to be considered 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 getting professional advice.