My partner and I are looking to purchase a flat in Sheffield and have instructed a Sheffield conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Nottingham Building Society have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Sheffield conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 lender 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 and you may continue to use your own Sheffield solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
I am helping my niece sell her flat in Sheffield. Does the conveyancing solicitor arrange the EPC or do I organise this?
After the abolition of Home Packs, EPC’s was retained a compulsory part of moving house. An energy performance certificate needs to be to hand before the property is marketed. This is not a task that law firms normally arrange. If you are using a Sheffield conveyancing practitioner they might be able to arrange energy performance certificates given their contacts with reputable Sheffield providers
My wife and I buying a detached bungalow in Sheffield. We would like to carry out an extension to the side at the house.Will the conveyancing process involve investigations to determine if these alterations are permitted?
Your solicitor will review the deeds as conveyancing in Sheffield will on occasion reveal restrictions in the title documents which prohibit categories of changes or necessitated the consent of another owner. Some additions require local authority planning permissions and approval under the building regulations. Certain areas are designated conservation areas and special planning restrictions apply which frequently prevent or affect extensions. You should check these issues with a surveyor ahead of any purchase.
I had an offer accepted on a house in Sheffield on 4/8/2026, valuation was booked five days later, all came back fine. Property lawyer appointed, so the only thing outstanding was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to Kent Reliance and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. Are Kent Reliance entitled to hold back the Mortgage pending the lawyer being on the approved list?
Mortgage companies tend not to not issue an offer until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Kent Reliance to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
The deeds to my home can not be found. The solicitors who handled the conveyancing in Sheffield 4 years ago have long since closed. Will I be able to sell the house?
You no longer need to have the physical official documentation to evidence that you own the land or premises, given that the Land Registry hold details of all registered land or property electronically.
I have been on the look out for a flat up to £235,500 and identified one near me in Sheffield I like with amenity areas and station nearby, the downside is that it only has 52 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Sheffield for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?
Should you require a mortgage that many years will likely be a potential deal breaker. Discount the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you may ask them to start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer concerning this.
I am on look out for some leasehold conveyancing in Sheffield. Before I get started I want to be sure as to the unexpired term of the lease.
Assuming the lease is recorded at the land registry - and most are in Sheffield - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title. For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.
I inherited a garden flat in Sheffield, conveyancing was carried out in 2011. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Corresponding flats in Sheffield with over 90 years remaining are worth £202,000. The ground rent is £60 yearly. The lease ceases on 21st October 2082
With just 56 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £29,500 and £34,000 plus costs.
The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs without more comprehensive due diligence. Do not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt additional issues that need to be considered and clearly you should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward based on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.
I need to assess costs for conveyancing in Sheffield from various conveyancer and decide on one. Do I tell them to sit tight until I have found somewhere to acquire.
You should wait to ask your conveyancing practitioner to start work and apply for searches once the offer has been agreed to on the property especially as Sheffield conveyancing searches are costly.