My apartment in Barbican is up for sale and I have a buyer. Does my lawyer have to be on the Nationwide conveyancing panel in order to deal with redeeming my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Nationwide conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their conditions fairly frequently at the moment.

A friend recommended that where I am purchasing in Barbican I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?

This is a search is sometimes included in the estimate for your Barbican conveyancing searches. It is a large report of about 40 pages, listing and setting out important information about Barbican around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime statistics, Barbican Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information regarding Barbican.

three months have elapsed following my purchase conveyancing in Barbican took place. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £150,000 when infact I paid £160,000. Why the discrepancy?

The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the premises from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.

I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold element on a house I put an offer in last month in what should have been a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. Barbican is where the house is located. Can you offer any assistance?

Flying freeholds in Barbican are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Barbican you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds diligently. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Barbican 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 property.

Are the Barbican conveyancing lawyers identified as being on the mortgage company conveyancing panel, together with their details provided by the mortgage company?

Barbican law firm practices and firms conducting conveyancing in Barbican themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the bank conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from the bank directly.