My husband and I are looking to acquire a home in Barlborough and are in fact using a Barlborough conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Aldermore have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Barlborough lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?

When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the mortgage company. 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 property lawyer 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 lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Barlborough lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

I have paid off my mortgage with Leeds Building Society. I assume I don't need a Barlborough property lawyer on the Leeds Building Society panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?

If you have finished paying off your Leeds Building Society mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Leeds Building Society mortgage from the register. Leeds Building Society, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:

1. but are not moving to another property
2. where Leeds Building Society has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
3. Leeds Building Society has instructed the Land Registry to do so

I have instructed a Barlborough property lawyer having made sure that they are on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?

Leeds Building Society will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Leeds Building Society will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. You may wish to consider appointing your own Barlborough surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller.

After what feels like an age I have had an offer on a maisonette in Barlborough accepted, the owners do nevertheless have a connected purchase. The vendors have put an offer on a flat, but it’s not yet tied up, and have viewings of other apartments in the pipeline. I have selected a nearby conveyancing solicitor in Barlborough. What do I do now? When do I get the mortgage application with Virgin Money started?

It is understandable to have concerns where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to incur costs prematurely (home loan application is approx £1k, then valuation, Barlborough conveyancing search charges, etc). The first thing to do is ensure that your property lawyer is on the Virgin Money conveyancing panel. As to the subsequent stages this very much dictated by the specifics of your case, desire for the property and on the state of the market. In a buoyant market many buyers would apply for a home loan with Virgin Money and pay for the valuation and only if it was satisfactory would they pay their solicitor to move forward with the conveyancing in Barlborough.

My relative suggested that where I am purchasing in Barlborough I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?

A search of this type is occasionally included in the estimate for your Barlborough conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing significant information about Barlborough around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Barlborough Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime details, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about Barlborough.

I am looking into buying my first house which is in Barlborough and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Barlborough. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Barlborough area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?

Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Barlborough. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found

What range of conveyancing matters do Barlborough conveyancing firms manage?

In the main Barlborough conveyancing companies can supply a wide spectrum of assistance to home and land owners, sellers, buyers, landlords and leaseholders including the following:

Standard residential sale conveyancing in Barlborough and beyond House purchase conveyancing in Barlborough and countrywide All property dispute issues including rights of way and boundary disputes Leasehold and freehold schemes for new build and conversion projects Buying and selling at auction Property Trust Declarations