I am acquiring a brand new apartment in Buckingham and my solicitor is advising me that she has to the bank to reveal incentives from the developer. The Estate Agents are hassling me to exchange and my preference is not to prolong deal. Is my lawyer right?

You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your conveyancing practitioner. A precondition to being on a bank panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.

My husband and I wish to acquire a purpose built apartment in Buckingham with a residential mortgage from Barnsley Building Society.We would like to retain our Buckingham conveyancing solicitor but Barnsley Building Society says his firm is not on their "panel". we are left little option but to use a Barnsley Building Society panel solicitor or retain our preferred solicitor and pay for one of their panel ones to act for them. This seems very unfair; is there anything we can do?

Unfortunately,no. The loan issued to you contains terms and conditions, one of which will be that conveyancers needs to be on the Barnsley Building Society solicitor panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could find one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. Another option that might be available is for your solicitors to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for Barnsley Building Society

I appreciate that there are debates on Chancel Insurance on online forums. Am I compelled to take this when purchasing a house in Buckingham? or Apparently there is a law dating back centuries that could mean that homeowners living in a parish church boundary may be liable to pay for repairs towards the chancel within the church. Is this a legitimate concern for conveyancing in Buckingham?

Unless a prior acquisition of the house completed post 12 October 2013 you may expect lawyers handling conveyancing in Buckingham to continue to propose a a chancel search and or chancel repair liability insurance.

How difficult is it to change firm as I need to instruct one who is on the Halifax conveyancing panel. I hired a family conveyancing solicitor in Buckingham five minutes from me but she is not accepted by Halifax

It would be our pleasure to help you find a conveyancing solicitor in Buckingham on the Halifax panel. Please note that the law firms that we on the directory do not pay us fee if you instruct them and are under regulation of the SRA who oversee all conveyancing solicitors in Buckingham. In utilising search facility on this website, you can compare and instruct different solicitors and conveyancers both nationally and in Buckingham.

I work for a busy estate agent office in Buckingham where we have experienced a number of leasehold sales jeopardised as a result of short leases. I have been given conflicting advice from local Buckingham conveyancing solicitors. Could you clarify whether the vendor of a flat can initiate the lease extension formalities for the buyer?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to kick-start the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. This means that the buyer need not have to wait 2 years for a lease extension. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment has to be done before, or simultaneously with completion of the sale.

Alternatively, it may be possible to extend the lease informally by agreement with the landlord either before or after the sale. If you are informally negotiating there are no rules and so you cannot insist on the landlord agreeing to grant an extension or transferring the benefit of an agreement to the purchaser.

Buckingham Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Queries before buying

How much is the ground rent and service charge? Does the lease include onerous restrictions?