My fiance and I are planning to acquire a property in Cathays and are in fact using a Cathays conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Cathays conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?

When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is normal for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the purchaser's lender. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your bank and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Cathays lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.

My colleague advised me that where I am purchasing in Cathays I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?

This is a search is sometimes quoted for as part of the standard Cathays conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing significant information about Cathays around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Cathays Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information regarding Cathays.

Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly identified as part of conveyancing in Cathays?

Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the legal transfer of property in Cathays. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’

I'm purchasing a new build house in Cathays with a loan from . The developers refused to reduce the amount so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not inform my solicitor about the side-deal as it would jeopardize my loan with the bank. Is this normal?.

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 flat up to £245,000 and found one round the corner in Cathays I like with a park and transport links nearby, the downside is that it's only got 52 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Cathays suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a short lease?

If you need a home loan that many years may be a potential deal breaker. Reduce the price by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the property for a minimum of 2 years you could ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the existing lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing lawyer concerning this.