My wife and I are planning to acquire a property in Alexandra Park and are in fact using a Alexandra Park conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Skipton Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Alexandra Park conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?

Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the purchaser's lender. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your bank and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Alexandra Park solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

I am selling our property in Alexandra Park and according to the buyers it appears that there is a risk of it being constructed on contaminated land. Any high street Alexandra Park lawyer would know this is not the case. For the life of me I don't know why the purchasers are using an internet conveyancing firm rather than a conveyancing solicitor in Alexandra Park. We have lived in Alexandra Park for six years we know that this is a non issue. Should we contact our local Authority to get clarification need.

It would appear that you have a conveyancing lawyer currently acting for you. What do they say? You should check with your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out life insurance to cover that same illness)

I'm buying a new build house in Alexandra Park with a mortgage from Lloyds TSB Bank. The sellers refused to reduce the amount so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of extras instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not to tell my lawyer about the extras as it could impact my loan with the lender. Is this normal?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.

Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.

Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.

Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I put an offer in last month in what should have been a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. Alexandra Park is where the house is located. What do you suggest?

Flying freeholds in Alexandra Park are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Alexandra Park you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds very carefully. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Alexandra Park may decide that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold residence.

I am purchasing a garden flat in Alexandra Park. Conveyancing solicitor has been awaiting, from the seller, building insurance schedule. This morning I was advised that the seller must send the insurance documents for the flat above also. Why does my property lawyer need to see the insurance for the other flat? Is it really required? We have been in hold for the last 3 weeks…

It is not impossible in leasehold conveyancing in Alexandra Park to discover Conveyancing in Alexandra Park in a minority of cases reveals that the lease obliges the tenant's to insure their individual flats as opposed to the freeholder insuring the entire property - which is clearly preferable. You should check with your conveyancer but it would appear that your solicitor is attempting to verify that the entire building is insured. Insuring your flat is no help when it comes to rebuilding after a fire if the other flat cannot be reconstructed as a result of lack of insurance cover.