My fiance and I are planning to acquire a house in Brownhills and have instructed a Brownhills conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Barclays have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Brownhills solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?

When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 Quality 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Brownhills lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

We are a couple about to sign contracts for a garden flat in Brownhills. We have hit a problem. Our loan offer with Santander runs out on 6/2/2026 but the owners are putting forward a completion date of 10/2/2026. Can one prolong the loan expiry date?

The best person to deal with your issue is your lawyer who will hopefully determine whether they better off negotiating with the bank, vendor’s solicitors, property agents or indeed all three given the circumstances your transaction as of today.

My home in Brownhills is up for sale and I have a purchaser. Will my conveyancer need to be required to be on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel in order to deal with repayment of my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Kent Reliance 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 specifications fairly frequently at the moment.

I used Wolstenholmes several years ago for my conveyancing in Brownhills. Now, I need the files but the law firm is no longer operating. What do I do?

You should contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracing your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Brownhills of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously retained, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

Expecting to exchange soon on a garden flat in Brownhills. Conveyancing solicitors assured me that they report fully tomorrow. What should I be looking out for?

Your report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Brownhills should include some of the following:

The landlord’s rights to access the premises. You should be made aware that your landlord has rights of access as well as be informed how much notice must be provided. You should know whether the lease allows you to alter or upgrade anything in the premises- you must be made aware as to whether any restrictions relates to all alterations or limited to structural alteration, and whether licences for alterations is mandated necessary Details of the parties to the lease, for instance these could be the leaseholder, head lessor, freeholder What remedies are open the freeholder should you have contravened the provisions of the lease? Specifying your rights in relation to the communal areas in the building.E.G., does the lease provide for a right of way over a path or hallways?

I invested in buying a basement flat in Brownhills, conveyancing was carried out half a dozen years ago. Can you please calculate a probable premium for a statutory lease extension? Comparable properties in Brownhills with over 90 years remaining are worth £202,000. The ground rent is £60 per annum. The lease expires on 21st October 2081

You have 56 years remaining on your lease the likely cost is going to be between £29,500 and £34,000 as well as costs.

The suggested premium range above a general guide to costs for extending a lease, but we are not able to provide a more accurate figure in the absence of comprehensive investigations. Do not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There are no doubt other concerns that need to be considered and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information without first getting professional advice.