My husband and I are hoping to purchase a house in Clapham and have instructed a Clapham conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. have this morning contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Clapham lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?

If you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent 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 solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Clapham solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

Is there a reason why leasehold purchase conveyancing in Clapham is more expensive?

In short, leasehold conveyancing in Clapham and elsewhere usually involve additional hours of investigation compared to freehold transactions. This includes reviewing the lease, communicating with the landlord concerning serving applicable notices, obtaining current service charge and management information, securing the freeholder’s consents and reviewing management accounts. The obligations on both the landlord and the tenant in the lease need to be studied by the buyer’s conveyancing team and read from beginning to end – regardless of the fact the lease has passed through many different property solicitors hands since it was first granted.

Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold element on a house I have offered on two weeks back in what should have been a simple, chain free conveyancing. Clapham is the location of the property. What do you suggest?

Flying freeholds in Clapham are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Clapham you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds thoroughly. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Clapham may ascertain 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 residence.

I am attracted to a couple of maisonettes in Clapham which have about fifty years left on the leases. Will this present a problem?

There are plenty of short leases in Clapham. The lease is a right to use the property for a period of time. As the lease gets shorter the saleability of the lease decreases and results in it becoming more costly to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is advisable to extend the lease term. It is often difficult to sell a property with a short lease as mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on properties of this type. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We advise that you get professional help from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this arena.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Clapham - A selection of Queries Prior to buying

On the whole the cost for major works tend not to be included within maintenance charges, albeit that there some managing agents in Clapham require leasehold owners to contribute towards a reserve fund created for the specific purpose of building a fund for major repairs or maintenance. Plenty Clapham leasehold properties will be liable to pay a service bill for the upkeep of the block invoiced on behalf of the management company. Where you purchase the flat you will have to meet this charge, normally periodically accross the year. This could be anything from two or three hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for bigger purpose-built blocks. In all probability there will be a ground rent to be met yearly, ordinarily this is not a significant figure, say approximately £25-£75 but you should to enquire as sometimes it could be many hundreds of pounds. How much is the ground rent and service charge?

I pay a maintenance fee for my appartment in Clapham. Due to redundancy and other issues I slipped behind with remittance. The managing agents agreed a clearance schedule but there is still three grand currently due.

I now wish to sell and I am worried this could threaten to derail the sale if I have to settle the amount due in advance. I'd like to sell up and then repay the arrears from the completion monies - is this practicable?

Do check with the carrying out your Clapham conveyancing but it might be possible to arrange for the arrears to be transferred to the buyers. The final price due would be adjusted to reflect the amount of debt they take on. They would then deal with the arrears once they are the owners.