"There a several benefits of local information when buying or selling in Gloucestershire. By building contacts with local authorities, your Solicitor can deliver Conveyancing with fewer delays, and keep you better informed. They are also highly familiar with areas needing special consideration across Gloucestershire.

We have assisted home movers throughout Gloucestershire, including Conveyancing in GL1, GL3, GL6, GL7, GL8."

Local issues considered by Gloucestershire Conveyancing Solicitors:

Coal and Brine Pumping Searches

Mining - of coal, metal ores and other minerals - has been carried out across the country since the copper age of prehistory. Residential property may be affected by old underground workings, especially if there is still a risk of subsidence. The mining search provides information on the following:

• Records of coal mining activity in the vicinity, whether past, current, or planned
• Records of any former mine-shafts nearby
• Information about previous subsidence known to have taken place, including details of previous damage claims
• Details of coal seams known to exist beneath the property

Heavy excavators are involved with the 'overcast' technique of coal mining in use today, causing disruption to nearby property during excavation. Although this may have less direct ongoing impact on property, the existence of large opencast workings in the vicinity can have an adverse effect while coal is being extracted. Despite the lack of a central registry, there are a number of private companies which have assembled information from old records, modern surveys and aerial photographs.

There are approximately 93 areas in Gloucestershire where a mining search is required. These include; Standish, Ruardean, Worrall Hill, Frampton Cotterell, Lydney and Engine Common.

Do you know if your new home purchase in Gloucestershireis designated as an at risk conservation area?

Conservation areas are designated by Local Councils to manage change in areas that people want to protect from neglect. However, sadly many are falling into neglect e.g. removal of boundary walls and hedges.

The following conservation areas are reported as at risk:

• Warmley, Siston - very bad, low vulnerability and no significant change.
• Whitfield Tabernacle - very bad, low vulnerability and unknown.

Fridaysmove property lawyers in Gloucestershire are on all UK mortgage lender panels, including:

The consequences of your solicitor not being on your Mortgage Lender's panel

Many lenders, and particularly nationwide banks, were once willing to instruct any solicitors who requested to be added to their panel. Increasingly however, lenders have lowered the number of firms which they will accept and allow to perform this work. These options are available to any homebuyer whose solicitor is not on their lender's panel; 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. Issues to consider if you intend to swap to a firm on the panel:

• The second firm may have a different fee structure, or higher fees
• Work which the first solicitor has completed already may need to be paid for regardless of your decision.
• Your new conveyancing solicitor may have weaker local knowledge.