Awareness of local issues and concerns can mean the difference between a stress-free move, and a drawn-out and difficult process. Our Solicitors' maintain a network of Dorset contacts. In addition, areas of concern specific to the Dorset region will also be examined.

We have assisted home movers throughout Dorset, including Conveyancing in BH1, BH16, BH19, BH20, BH21, BH22, BH23, BH31, DT1, DT10, DT11, DT2, DT3, DT4, DT5, DT6, DT7, DT8, DT9, SP8.

Is your new home purchase in Dorset designated as an at risk conservation area?

Conservation areas are defined by Local Councils to oversee change in regions that people want to protect from decay. There are 9,300 of them in the UK. Unfortunately however, many are being neglected e.g. increase in unsympathetic replacement doors and windows - typically pvc.

The following conservation areas are reported as at risk:

• Blandford Forum - very bad, medium vulnerability and deteriorating.
• Gillingham - very bad, medium vulnerability and deteriorating.
• Milton Abbas - poor, low vulnerability and deteriorating.
• Bothenhampton - at risk, unknown vulnerability and deteriorating.
• Bradford Abbas - at risk, unknown vulnerability and deteriorating.
• Bradpole - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Broadwindsor - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Cattistock - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Charminster - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Herrison - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Charmouth - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Chickerell - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Frampton - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Litton Cheney - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Maiden Newton and Higher Frome Vauchurch - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Owermoigne - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Piddletrenthide - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Portesham - at risk, unknown vulnerability and improving.
• Puddletown - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Shipton Gorge - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Symondsbury - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Whitchurch Canonicorum - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Winterbourne Abbas - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Chideock and Seatown - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• West Knighton - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• Lodmoor Hill - fair, medium vulnerability and deteriorating.
• Wareham and Stoborough - at risk, unknown vulnerability and improving.
• West Lulworth - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.
• East Lulworth - at risk, unknown vulnerability and improving.
• Chaldon Herring - at risk, unknown vulnerability and no significant change.

What are the consequences if your solicitor is not on your Lender's panel?

Many lenders, and particularly nationwide banks, were once willing to instruct any solicitors who requested to be added to their panel. Recently, lenders have changed the criteria for the firms which they will accept on their panels. They have also reduced the size of their panels, removing firms which do not carry out much Conveyancing work or which they consider to have proved unsatisfactory in the past. To proceed where your Dorset lawyer is not on a mortgage lender' s panel, you have the following options; you could either obtain a mortgage from another lender, or instruct another firm of conveyancer who are on the panel. Generally, it is cheaper to have the same firm act both for you and your lender, but you could also choose to persist with both your first choice of lender and solicitor, and pay for a lawyer selected by the lender to carry out the relevant legal work. If you choose to remain with your first choice of Dorset-based solicitor, consider the following:

• Your lenders will instruct another firm, and you will have to pay their costs in addition to your own
• Your solicitor will have to send documents and information to the other solicitors, and wait for a response, which can cause delays
• Your case will be one of many which the lender's solicitors are dealing with, so it will be more difficult to engineer any priority treatment
• You cannot contact these solicitors directly, as they will be acting for the lender, not for you

Qualifying for stamp duty relief in Dorset

Purchases of property in Dorset 'disadvantaged areas' are eligible for stamp duty, using local government wards to delineate boundaries. As the areas which have been designated are based on local authority electoral wards, they do not always coincide with postcode districts. The postcode search tool cannot always be relied on to predict eligibility. If it is suspected that a property is located in a disadvantaged area, further enquiries are required to be made to the local council or authority. A postcode search will usually determine whether a home being sold for less than the threshold is eligible. Call our Conveyancing team for a full list of designated disadvantaged areas in Dorset.

Disadvantaged areas in Dorset include Melcombe Regis.