Can you help? My Penn lawyer is informing me me that he is legally obliged toconduct Penn conveyancing searches asthe firm are on the Nat Westsolicitor panel. Is this really necessary?

Unfortunately both you and your lawyer have little choice here. As you are obtaining a mortgage with a mortgage company your property lawyer has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your lawyer would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of your lender’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to comply with the CML Handbook specifications . Even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out Penn conveyancing searches.

Are the Penn conveyancing solicitors identified as being on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel, together with their details provided by Kent Reliance?

Penn conveyancing firms themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Kent Reliance directly.

I decided to have a survey completed on a property in Penn ahead of instructing solicitors. I have been told that there is a flying freehold element to the property. My surveyor has said that some mortgage companies will not give a mortgage on this type of home.

It varies from the lender to lender. HSBC has different instructions from Birmingham Midshires. If you e-mail us we can investigate further with the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Penn. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Penn to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.

Do you have any top tips for leasehold conveyancing in Penn from the perspective of speeding up the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Penn can be bypassed where you instruct lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold information which will be required by the purchasers’ conveyancers.
If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are settled prior to the flat being marketed. The purchasers and their solicitors will be concerned about purchasing a property where there is an ongoing dispute. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled ahead of the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You will still have to reveal details of the dispute to the buyers, but it is clearly preferable to present the dispute as historic as opposed to unsettled. Some Penn leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this applies to your lease, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. Any bank reference will need to confirm that the buyers are able to meet the yearly 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 purchasers or their solicitors. If you hold a share in a the freehold, you should ensure that you are holding the original share document. Arranging a duplicate share certificate can be a time consuming process and slows down many a Penn conveyancing transaction. If a reissued share certificate is required, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (where relevant) for this as soon as possible. You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to double-check by asking your conveyancers. A buyer’s lawyer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the lease term is below 80 years. In the circumstances it is important at an as soon as possible that you consider whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your premises on the market for sale.

Penn Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Questions you should consider before buying

Where a Penn lease has fewer than eighty years it will have adverse implications on the value of the flat. Check with your bank that they are willing to lend given the lease term. Leases with less than 80 years remaining means that you will probably require a lease extension at some point and you need to have some idea of what this will be. Remember, in most cases you will be be obliged to have been the owner of the property for 24 months in order to be eligible to exercise a lease extension. The prefered form of lease structure is if the freehold reversion is owned by the leaseholders. In this arrangement the tenants benefit from being in charge if their destiny and notwithstanding that a managing agent is usually retained where it is bigger than a house conversion, the managing agent is directed by the tenants.

Been reading online that Penn solicitors are more costly than Penn conveyancers in Penn when it comes to purchasing a house. So is it better if I use a conveyancer or a solicitor if I am purchasing for my home move in Penn.

When it comes to conveyancing in Penn the costs are unlikely to vary dramatically depending on whether the legal expert is a licenced conveyancer or solicitor.