My grandson is about to exchange on a new build apartment in Alston with a mortgage from Co-operative. His lawyer has advised him of a delay in receiving the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. This document is news to me - what is it and who needs sight of it?

The form is intended to provide information to the main parties engaged in the purchase. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the Co-operative conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the surveyor when asked. The developer will be required to start the process by downloading the form and completing it. The form will therefore need to be available for the valuer at the time of his or her site visit. The form should be sent to the Co-operative conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.

I am purchasing a new build house in Alston with a loan from Santander. The developers would not budge the price so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The sale representative advised me not disclose to my lawyer about this side-deal as it could impact my loan with the bank. Should I keep quiet?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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.

I have been on the look out for a ground for flat up to £235,500 and found one close by in Alston I like with amenity areas and railway links in the vicinity, however it only has 51 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Alston for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a short lease?

If you require a home loan the shortness of the lease may be problematic. Reduce the price by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing proprietor has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you could ask them to start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this matter.

I have been recommended by two or three local selling agents in Alston to select a conveyancer using your seach tool. What’s the financial upside for Estate Agents to recommend your lawyers rather than a competitor’s?

We refuse to give any referral fee for sending work our way. We thought it would be too underhand a fee because home movers will think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why am I not getting any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.

We are in the process of buying a flat in Alston. Conveyancing is not complete but we wish to keep our purchase price a secret from sites such as Nestoria. what can I do to ensure this is not noted?

HM Land Registry as a matter of law obliged to specify price paid data on the official title for domestic properties countrywide which includes properties in Alston. The Title Register is a public document, so HMLR would be breaching their statutory obligations excluded specific homes such as the one in Alston.

You can ask the Land Registry to hide the price paid data yet the response will be in the negative.