My partner and I are looking to acquire a flat in Buckinghamshire and have instructed a Buckinghamshire conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Leeds Building Society have this morning contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Buckinghamshire solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?

Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers 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 mortgage company 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 Buckinghamshire lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.

We are approaching an exchange on a property in Buckinghamshire and my parents have transferred the exchange deposit to my property lawyer. I am now told that as the deposit has not arrived from me my conveyancer needs to make a notification to my lender. I am advised that, in also acting for the mortgage company he must inform them that the balance of the purchase price is coming from anyone other than me. I disclosed to the lender regarding my parents' contribution when I applied for the home loan, so is it really appropriate for him to raise this?

Your lawyer is duty bound to check with lender to ensure that they know that the balance of the purchase price is not from your own resources. Your solicitor can only disclose this to your bank if you agree, failing which, your lawyer must cease to continue acting.

My bank has suggested a law firm on their panel based in Buckinghamshire but I would rather choose a conveyancing lawyer in Buckinghamshire or nearer to where I live. Can you assist?

The minority of Buckinghamshire conveyancing firms are on all lender’s conveyancing panel. Use the above search tool to choose a Buckinghamshire conveyancing solicitor on the on the lender panel.

Are all Buckinghamshire Conveyancing Quality Solicitors on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing list of approved practices?

A selection of banks and building societies now make use of CQS as the starting point for Panel approval such as HSBC and Santander. The Law Society’s CQS membership however is no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. That being said,the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for solicitor practices wishing to join their panels.

We expect to receive a OIP from Nottingham this week so we can work out what to offer on a property we like as otherwise we only have online calculators to go by (which aren't taking into account credit checks etc). Do Nottingham recommend any Buckinghamshire solicitors on the Nottingham conveyancing panel, or is it better to find our own lawyer?

You will need to appoint Buckinghamshire solicitors independently although you'll need to choose one on the Nottingham conveyancing panel. The solicitor represents both you and Nottingham through the process.

I had an offer accepted on a house in Buckinghamshire on 15/7/2025, valuation was booked five days later, received a clean bill of health. Conveyancer appointed, so all that was missing was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to Santander and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the Santander conveyancing panel. Are Santander entitled to hold back the Mortgage pending the lawyer being on the approved list?

Mortgage companies tend not to not issue an offer until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Santander to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Santander conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.

I am purchasing my first flat in Buckinghamshire benefiting from help to buy. The builders refused to budge the price so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The sale representative advised me not disclose to my conveyancer about the side-deal as it would put at risk my mortgage with Norwich and Peterborough Building Society. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.

Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.

Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.