My partner and I are planning to purchase a house in Chester le Street and have instructed a Chester le Street conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. have this morning contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Chester le Street conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?

Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your mortgage company and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Chester le Street solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

Various online forums that I have visited warn that are the primary reason for delay in Chester le Street conveyancing transactions. Is that correct?

The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) published findings of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not feature amongst the top 10 causes of delays during the legal transfer of property. Local searches are unlikely to feature in any delay in conveyancing in Chester le Street.

I used Wolstenholmes several years past for my conveyancing in Chester le Street. Now, I need the files but the law firm is no longer operating. What do I do?

Do contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Chester le Street of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously retained, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

Just had an offer accepted on a new build apartment in Chester le Street. Conveyancing is necessary evil at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. What sort of enquires would be asked in new build conveyancing.

Here is a sample of a few leasehold new build questions that you may expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Chester le Street

Will the freehold then be transferred for a nominal consideration (not exceeding £100) to the Management Company? Has the Lease plan been approved by the Land Registry and if not when will they be lodged for this purpose? The Lease must contain a provision on behalf of the Vendor to pay the service charges in respect of unoccupied units in order to ensure that all services can be provided. Please supply evidence that the form of Lease proposed has been approved by the Land Registry. Forfeiture - bankruptcy or liquidation must not apply under this provision.

Harry (my fiance) and I may need to sub-let our Chester le Street basement flat temporarily due to a career opportunity. We instructed a Chester le Street conveyancing firm in 2002 but they have closed and we did not think at the time get any guidance as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

The lease governs relations between the landlord and you the leaseholder; in particular, it will say if subletting is not allowed, or permitted but only subject to certain caveats. The accepted inference is that if the lease contains no specific ban or restriction, subletting is allowed. The majority of leases in Chester le Street do not prevent an absolute prevention of subletting – such a provision would undoubtedly devalue the property. In most cases there is a basic requirement that the owner notifies the freeholder, possibly supplying a duplicate of the sublease.

I bought a ground floor flat in Chester le Street, conveyancing formalities finalised 1995. Can you work out an approximate cost of a lease extension? Equivalent flats in Chester le Street with over 90 years remaining are worth £165,000. The ground rent is £45 invoiced annually. The lease ends on 21st October 50

You have 50 years remaining on your lease we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £36,100 and £41,800 as well as costs.

The figure that we have given is a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you a more accurate figure without more comprehensive due diligence. Do not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other issues that need to be considered and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. You should not take any other action based on this information before seeking the advice of a professional.