My partner and I are buying residence in Christchurch. My property lawyer is not on the mortgage company conveyancing list. Am I still permitted to use my Christchurch conveyancing solicitor notwithstanding that they are excluded from the bank panel?

You have a number of choices available to you here

• Carry on with your chosen Christchurch but your bank will no doubt retain a on their conveyancing panel. This will result in additional cost together with potential delay.
• Choose a new to conduct the conveyancing, making sure they are on the bank conveyancing panel.
• Convince your to attempt to join the lender panel

Finally the sale completed on my house in Christchurch last July but our buyer keeps calling daily to say her lawyer needs to hear from mylawyer. What should my lawyer have done following completion?

Following your sale your solicitor is obliged to forward the transfer deeds and all of the paperwork to the buyer’s conveyancer. Where relevant, your lawyer must also confirm that the legal charge in favour of the lender has been paid off to the buyers lawyers. There are no post completion tasks just for conveyancing in Christchurch.

We are buying a flat in Christchurch. I might seem paranoid but how we can trust a lawyer? On completion day we will need to send our life savings into their account. What is the protection we have from them run away with our monies?

Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.

How can we know in advance if a Christchurch conveyancing solicitor on the panel is any good?

When it comes to conveyancing in Christchurch getting recommendations is a sensible starting point. Before you go ahead, check if they offer a no sale no fee offer. Also, you often get what you pay for - a firm which quotes more, will often provide a better service than one which is cheap as chips. We would always suggest that you speak with the solicitor conducting your conveyancing.

We are getting the release of further funds on our home loan from as we wish to carry out renovations to our house in Christchurch. Are we obliged to select a nearby Christchurch solicitor on the conveyancing panel to handle the paperwork?

do not ordinarily require a member of their approved list of lawyers to handle the formalities. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the panel.

I'm purchasing my first flat in Christchurch with the aid of help to buy. The developers refused to move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The house builders rep advised me not to tell my lawyer about this extras as it would jeopardize my mortgage with the bank. Is this normal?.

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.

I am looking for a ground for flat up to £195,000 and identified one round the corner in Christchurch I like with a park and railway links nearby, the downside is that it's only got 49 remaining years left on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Christchurch in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a short lease?

If you need a home loan the remaining unexpired lease term may be problematic. Discount the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you can request that they start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor concerning this.