I'm in the process of porting my existing standard mortgage to a Buy to Let Bank of Ireland mortgage. The bank has said that I must appoint a solicitor for this. I spoke to the same Charterhouse conveyancing firm who who completed the conveyancing when I originally bought the property. The quote provided of £500 has shocked me as I am not require purchase conveyancing - it’s just a straightforward remortgage.

The estimate does seem a tad steep. If you you were to look around you may be able to shave off some of the cost by say £125. That being said, assuming were content with the assistance the firm provided you couldlive to regret opting for an an unknown conveyancer. If is important to check the conveyancer can act for Bank of Ireland. Do employ our search tool to select a Charterhouse conveyancing firm on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel, which can often include conveyancing solicitors in Charterhouse.

The mortgage over my property is with Bank of Ireland for my property in Charterhouse. Conveyancing has been completed a year ago. If I am intending to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Bank of Ireland?

Bank of Ireland must be informed of your intention prior to renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Bank of Ireland’s mortgage conditions. It may be that Bank of Ireland will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Bank of Ireland directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel solicitor.

Completion of my remortgage has taken place for my property in Charterhouse. Conveyancing was a necessary evil but I would like to complain about the lender. How does one go about formally complaining?

All lenders have complaints procedures. Your first port of call should be one of the lender’s branches or the Customer Services Team at head office. In most cases complaints to a lender are resolved very quickly. However if you are not satisfied that the matter is not resolved you can write to Financial Ombudsman Service who will take matters further.

After weeks of negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in Charterhouse. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their conveyancer. I paid an upfront payment of £150. Not long after, the solicitor contacted me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?

You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Kent Reliance panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.

The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build apartment in Charterhouse. Conveyancing is necessary evil at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. Can you give me some examples of some of the questions asked in new build conveyancing.

Set out below is a sample of a few leasehold new build enquiries that you can expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Charterhouse

Forfeiture - bankruptcy or liquidation must not apply under this provision. Please confirm the Lease plans are architect prepared. Investor purchasers must be able to freely grant unsecured tenancies at market rents without requiring any consents. Has the Lease plan been approved by the Land Registry and if not when will they be lodged for this purpose? The Vendor must covenant to keep unsold units in good repair until long leases are granted therefore.

I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I have offered on two weeks back in what was supposed to be a quick, chain free conveyancing. Charterhouse is the location of the property. What do you suggest?

Flying freeholds in Charterhouse are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Charterhouse you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Charterhouse may decide that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold property.

My husband and I are buying a ground floor flat in Charterhouse. At the point of instructing our conveyancer, they said that they were on all major UK mortgage company panels. Our financial adviser emailed just now to say that they don't appear to be on the Leeds Building Society approved list. Were it to be true, what should we do? Should we simply find a different conveyancer that is on their approved list or do we pay for separate representation, with Leeds Building Society appointing their own preferred property lawyer.

Where you are acquiring a property requiring a mortgage it is standard for the buyer’s lawyers to also act for the mortgage company. In order to act for a bank or building society a conveyancer has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the conveyancing practitioner to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the property lawyer has to satisfy. Some banks now require their panel firms to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should call Leeds Building Society to find out 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 Leeds Building Society's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Charterhouse lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.