My husband and I are looking to purchase a flat in Blackburn and have appointed a Blackburn conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Yorkshire Building Society have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Blackburn conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?

When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' solicitors 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 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 solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Blackburn lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

In the event thatI were to buy a straightforward housein Blackburn mortgage fee and dispense with a survey and no local authority searches how much should I expect to to save on my conveyancing in Blackburn?

Any savings you would achieve would be isolated to the costs for searches. Your conveyancing practitioner still be obliged to do everything else - money laundering, communicating with your vendors conveyancing practitioner, stamp duty return, register the ownership etc. A marginal saving might be made by not having to register a charge but it won't be meaningful.

Do the Building Society Association intend to launch a online directory to to identify law firms on the Darlington Building Society conveyancing panel for example in Blackburn?

We would not expect to be advised of any plans on the part of the BSA to develop such a tool.

I acquired my house on 4 January and the transaction details is yet to be registered. Need I be worried? My conveyancing solicitor in Blackburn expressed confidence that it should be recorded in less than a month. Are titles in Blackburn particularly slow to register?

As far as conveyancing in Blackburn registration is no quicker or slower than anywhere else in England and Wales. Rather than based on location, timeframes can differ according to who lodges the application, whether it is in order and whether the Land registry communicate with any other parties. As of today approximately three quarters of submission are fully addressed within 12 days but some can be subject to extensive hold-ups. Historically registration takes place once the new owner has moved in to the premises so 'speed' is not always an essential issue but if it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your solicitor can communicate with the Registry to express the reasoning for an expedited registration.

I opted to have a survey done on a property in Blackburn prior to retaining lawyers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold element to the property. The surveyor has said that some banks will refuse to issue a mortgage on this type of property.

It depends who your proposed lender is. HSBC has different requirements from Birmingham Midshires. If you call us we can check via the appropriate lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Blackburn. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in Blackburn especially if they are accustomed to such properties in Blackburn.