It is a dozen years since I bought my home in Llanberis. Conveyancing lawyers have now been instructed on the sale but I am unable to locate my title documents. Will this cause complications?

Don’t worry too much. Firstly the deeds may be kept by the lender or they may stored with the solicitor who oversaw your purchase. Secondly the likelihood is that the title will be registered at the land registry and you will be able to establish that you are the registered owner by your conveyancing solicitors procuring current official copies of the land registers. Almost all conveyancing in Llanberis involves registered property but in the unlikely event that your home is not registered it adds to the complexity but is not insurmountable.

My husband and I are buying a 3 bedroom apartment in Llanberis with a mortgage from Chelsea Building Society.We have a Llanberis conveyancing lawyer but Chelsea Building Society informed us her practice is not listed on their approved list of member firms. It seems we are left with no choice but to instruct a Chelsea Building Society panel firm or keep our preferred solicitor and pay for a Chelsea Building Society panel lawyer to act for them. We feel as though this is unjust; Can we not simply insist that Chelsea Building Society use our lawyer?

Unfortunately,no. The mortgage issued to you is subject to its terms and conditions, a common one being that lawyers will be on the Chelsea Building Society conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. A further alternative is for your lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for Chelsea Building Society

Should my lawyer be asking questions about flooding during the conveyancing in Llanberis.

Flooding is a growing risk for solicitors carrying out conveyancing in Llanberis. There are those who purchase a property in Llanberis, completely aware that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical damage, where a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, adequate insurance cover, or dispose of the property. There are steps that can be taken during the course of a house purchase to forewarn the purchaser.

Lawyers are not qualified to give advice on flood risk, however there are a number of searches that can be undertaken by the purchaser or by their solicitors which will give them a better understanding of the risks in Llanberis. The standard completed inquiry forms given to a purchaser’s solicitor (where the Conveyancing Protocol is adopted) includes a usual question of the vendor to determine if the property has historically flooded. If the property has been flooded in past and is not disclosed by the seller, then a buyer could issue a claim for damages as a result of such an misleading answer. A purchaser’s conveyancers may also order an environmental report. This will disclose if there is any known flood risk. If so, more detailed inquiries should be made.

I used Arc property Solicitors a few years ago for my conveyancing in Llanberis. Now, I need my documents however cannot find the solicitor. What do I do?

You should contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracking down your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Llanberis of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously used, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

I have been advised by a couple of local estate agents in Llanberis to locate a solicitor on your site. What’s the financial advantage for Estate Agents to offer your services rather than another?

We refuse to offer any financial incentive for pointing buyers and sellers our way. We thought it would be too underhand a fee as members of the public would think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I getting any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.