AssumingI was to purchase a straightforward propertyin Horbury for cash and have no survey and no local authority searches how much should I expect to have to pay for conveyancing in Horbury?

Any savings you would achieve will be limited to the Horbury conveyancing searches. A conveyancing practitioner still be obliged to do everything else - money laundering, correspond with the sellers lawyer, stamp duty submission, register the title etc. A slight saving might be made by not needing to register a mortgage but it will not be meaningful.

As a FTB what is the most important number one tip you can impart concerning purchase conveyancing in Horbury?

You may not hear this from too many lawyers but conveyancing in Horbury or throughout England and Wales is an adversarial process. In other words, when it comes to conveyancing there exists an abundance of opportunity for conflict between you and others involved in the transaction. E.g., the seller, estate agent and on occasion your bank. Appointing a solicitor for your conveyancing in Horbury an important selection as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONLY person in the process whose responsibility is to protect your best interests and to keep you safe.

We are witnessing a worrying ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone must be at fault for the process being so protracted. We recommend that you your first instinct should be to trust your solicitor above all other players in the conveyancing process.

The Horbury conveyancing solicitors that I recently instructed on my purchase in Horbury have suddenly closed. I chose them because I needed a firm on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel and my family Horbury lawyer was not. I paid them funds on account. What should be my next steps?

Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then let them know straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers may be able to help.

The deeds to our home can not be found. The solicitors who did the conveyancing in Horbury 5 years ago have long since closed. What do I do?

As long as the title is registered the details of your proprietorship will be retained by the Land Registry under a Title Number. It is easy to carry out a search at the Land Registry, find your property and obtain current copies of the Registered Entries for a small fee. Where the property is Leasehold then the Land Registry will usually retain a file copy of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be obtained for twenty pounds.

How simple is it to use the search facility to find a conveyancing practitioner in Horbury on the approved list for my mortgage?

Step one is to choose a lender such as Yorkshire Building Society, Coventry Building Society or Britannia then specify your preferred area for example Horbury. Conveyancing practices in Horbury and further afield will then be identified.