My husband and I are buying a maisonette in Bury St Edmunds. My property lawyer has never been on on the mortgage company conveyancing list. Is it possible for me to retain my Bury St Edmunds conveyancing solicitor even though they are excluded from the lender approved list?

Your options include

• Proceed with your chosen Bury St Edmunds conveyancer but your lender will undoubtedly use a solicitor on their approved list. This will result in additional cost and likely interruption.
• Get a fresh conveyancing practitioner to conduct the conveyancing, ensuring that they are on the bank conveyancing panel.
• Convince your lawyer to pull out all the stops to join the bank’s panel of solicitors

Would the conveyancing lawyers identified through your search tool handle auction conveyancing in Bury St Edmunds?

We know of a number of niche solicitors we can put you in touch with those who can conduct auction conveyancing. Bury St Edmunds is one of our locations where our lawyers are based.

I am buying a garden flat in Bury St Edmunds. Conveyancing solicitors are said to be ‘a necessary evil’ but can I do it myself?

Leaving aside the complexities and merits of DIY conveyancing in Bury St Edmunds you will have to appoint a solicitor on your bank's conveyancing panel to look after their interests. Most people therefore find it easier to let the solicitor act for them and the lender. Furthermore there is minimal cost savings to be made in you doing conveyancing for yourself and another lawyer conducting the conveyancing for the lender. Please feel free to use the search tool to find a lawyer on your lender panel in Bury St Edmunds.

I am buying a new build house in Bury St Edmunds with a mortgage from Alliance & Leicester . The developers refused to budge the amount so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The house builders rep advised me not to tell my lawyer about the deal as it will affect my mortgage with Alliance & Leicester . Should I keep quiet?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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.

I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £245,000 and identified one near me in Bury St Edmunds I like with open areas and station nearby, the downside is that it only has 49 years unexpired on the lease. There is not much else in Bury St Edmunds suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a lease with such few years left?

Should you require a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term will likely be a potential deal breaker. Discount the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the premises for a minimum of twenty four months you can ask them to commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease term with a zero ground rent applied. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor regarding this.