My wife and I are planning to buy a house in Burnopfield and have instructed a Burnopfield 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. Virgin Money have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Burnopfield conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?

When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' lawyers 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 solicitor should contact your lender 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 Burnopfield lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to our property are lost. The conveyancers who dealt with the conveyancing in Burnopfield 10 years ago no longer exist. What are my next steps?

Assuming the title is registered the details of your ownership will be evidenced by the Land Registry under a Title Number. It is possible to conduct a search at the Land Registry, find your property and order current copies of the property title for less than a fiver. Where the property is Leasehold then the Land Registry will in most cases hold a certified copy of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be ordered for £20 inclusive of VAT.

Taking into account that I will soon spend over three hundred thousand on 3 bedroom house in Burnopfield I wish to talk to a lawyer regarding thetransaction ahead of instructing the firm. Can this be arranged?

We could not agree more - it is our preference to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you speaking to the solicitor due to be carrying out your property ownership legalities in Burnopfield.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - each client is unique person, not a file reference. The law firms that we put you in touch with believe that the fees you are provided with for your conveyancing in Burnopfield should be the amount on the final invoice that you end up paying.

I am employed by a reputable estate agency in Burnopfield where we see a few flat sales jeopardised due to leases having less than 80 years remaining. I have been given inconsistent advice from local Burnopfield conveyancing firms. Please can you confirm whether the owner of a flat can instigate the lease extension process for the purchaser on completion of the sale?

Provided that the seller has owned the lease for at least 2 years it is possible, to serve a Section 42 notice to commence the lease extension process and assign the benefit of the notice to the purchaser. The benefit of this is that the buyer need not have to sit tight for 2 years to extend their lease. Both sets of lawyers will agree to form of assignment. The assignment needs to be completed prior to, or simultaneously with completion of the disposal of the property.

Alternatively, it may be possible to agree the lease extension with the freeholder 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.

I am the registered owner of a ground floor flat in Burnopfield, conveyancing formalities finalised November 1997. Can you give me give me an indication of the likely cost of a lease extension? Equivalent flats in Burnopfield with a long lease are worth £196,000. The ground rent is £45 yearly. The lease runs out on 21st October 2088

With only 64 years left to run we estimate the price of your lease extension to span between £15,200 and £17,600 as well as legals.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of detailed investigations. You should not use this information in tribunal or court proceedings. There may be additional issues that need to be taken into account and clearly you want to be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Please do not move forward based on this information without first getting professional advice.

I am about to complete buying a house in Burnopfield but as a consequence of damage from the recent storms I have negotiated recompense from the current proprietors of £3k in the form of a reduction in the price. This was going to be addressed as part of the conveyancing process but my bank will not permit this. Should they have been informed?

The property lawyer being on a mortgage company approved list is required to disclose to the lender of any changes to the sale figure. If you were to refuse your property lawyer to report the reduction to your mortgage company then they would need to refrain from representing you and the bank.