My wife and I are intent on buying a leasehold flat in Lunt. My Solicitor has never been on on the bank approved panel. Can I still appoint my Lunt conveyancing solicitor notwithstanding that they are excluded from the bank list of approved lawyers?

Various options include

• Carry on with your existing Lunt lawyer but your bank will no doubt appoint a conveyancing practitioner from their approved panel. This will result in additional cost together with potential delay.
• Choose a fresh lawyer to conduct the conveyancing, making sure they are on the bank conveyancing panel.
• Convince your property lawyer to attempt to join the bank panel

Can you help? My Lunt lawyer is assuring me that he is legally obliged toorder Lunt conveyancing searches becausethe firm are on the HSBCsolicitor panel. These Lunt checks cost a lot of money can this be avoided?

Unfortunately both you and your lawyer have little choice here. Given that you are taking out a loan with a lender your solicitor has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your conveyancer would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of your lender’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to comply with the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook specifications . Even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out Lunt conveyancing searches.

Can you explain why leasehold purchase conveyancing in Lunt is more expensive?

Lunt leasehold conveyancing transactions usually involve additional investigations than freeholds including investigating the Lease, liaising with the Landlord such as serving applicable notices on the Landlord or managing agent, obtaining up-to-date service charge and management information, obtaining Landlord’s consents and reviewing management accounts and formation documents.

I am the sole beneficiary of my late father’s will with all property in now in my sole name, including the house in Lunt. The Lunt property was put into my name in March. I want to move. I do know about the Mortgage Lenders six month 'rule', which means that my proprietorship could be considered the same way as if I'd bought the house in March. Will no one buy the property for half a year?

The CML handbook obliges conveyancers to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." Technically you might be caught by that. many lenders would take a practical view as this requirement primarily exists to capture subsales or the flipping of properties.

I recently had an offer agreed on an apartment in Lunt. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their solicitor. I paid an on account payment of £175. A few days later, the conveyancing practitioner contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Skipton conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?

You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Skipton panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.

About to purchase house in Lunt. I have received an online quote from a licenced conveyancer, which states: "There will be no charge for dealing with the Building Society if you are obtaining a mortgage". I take this to mean that there will be no additional fee if the solicitor is on the HSBC conveyancing panel. I wanted to make sure it means there will be no additional fees for dealing with the mortgage.

They are simply saying that the cost for acting for the lender is included in the fee being quoted. It is worth you checking that the Lunt conveyancer is on the HSBC conveyancing panel.

I have recentlybeen informed that Stirling Law have closed. They conducted my conveyancing in Lunt for a purchase of a leasehold flat 9 months ago. How can I establish that the property is not still registered in the name of the former proprietor?

The easiest method to see if the property is in your name, you can make a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Lunt conveyancing specialists.