My wife and I are looking to purchase a flat in Chalk Farm and have appointed a Chalk Farm conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Chalk Farm conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?

When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is conventional 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 solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Chalk Farm lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.

My friend suggested that where I am buying in Chalk Farm I should ask my conveyancer to perform a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?

This is a search is sometimes included in the estimate for your Chalk Farm conveyancing searches. It is a large document of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing significant information about Chalk Farm around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Chalk Farm Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime statistics, Chalk Farm Education with plans and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data about Chalk Farm.

I used Wolstenholmes several years past for my conveyancing in Chalk Farm. Now, I need my documents however the law firm is no longer operating. What do I do?

Do call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate 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 Chalk Farm of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously hired, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

I am buying a new build house in Chalk Farm with a mortgage from . The builders would not reduce the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of additionals instead. The property agent suggested that I not to tell my conveyancer about the extras as it will jeopardize my mortgage with the lender. Is this normal?.

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.

Due to the guidance of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a house in Chalk Farm before instructing solicitors. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold overhang to the house. Our surveyor has said that some mortgage companies may refuse to issue a mortgage on a flying freehold property.

It varies from the lender to lender. HSBC has different requirements from Nationwide. Should you wish to call us we can investigate further with the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Chalk Farm. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Chalk Farm to see if the conveyancing will be more expensive.