I am progressing with the sale of my home in Cookley and the EA has just e-mailed to say that the purchasers are changing their property lawyer. The excuse is that the lender will only work with solicitors on their approved list. Why would a big named lender only work with certain solicitors rather the firm that they want to select to handle their conveyancing in Cookley ?

Mortgage companies have always had panels of law firms that can represent them, but in the past few years big names such as Santander, have considered and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have acted for them for many years.

Mortgage companies blame a rise in fraud by way of justification for the pruning – criteria have been narrowed as a smaller panel is easier to oversee. No lender will say how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society claims that it is hearing daily from firms that have been removed from panels. Some are unaware that they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. The purchasers are not going to have any impact on this.

Is it the case that all Cookley conveyancing solicitors on the Barclays conveyancing panel are overseen by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority?

As a firm of solicitors, in order to be on the Barclays conveyancing panel they would need to be overseen by the SRA. The majority of mortgage companies do permit licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such firms would be governed by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.

I currently have a mortgage with Skipton for my property in Cookley. Conveyancing has been completed some time ago. In the event that I decide to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform Skipton?

Your original mortgage agreement with Skipton will provide that you need their approval before letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Skipton’s mortgage conditions. It may be that Skipton will allow you to rent 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 Skipton directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Skipton conveyancing panel solicitor.

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

Most lenders have complaints procedures. Your first point of contact should be one of the lender’s branches or the Customer Services Department at head office. We understand that complaints to a lender are sorted out effectively and efficiently. However if you are not satisfied that the matter is not resolved you can write to Financial Ombudsman Service with full details of your complaint.

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

A search of this type is occasionally included in the estimate for your Cookley conveyancing searches. It is not a small report of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing important information about Cookley around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Cookley Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average House Prices, Crime statistics, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data concerning Cookley.

4 months have elapsed following my purchase conveyancing in Cookley concluded. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £200,000 when infact I paid £215,000. Why the discrepancy?

The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the property from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.

We're FTB’s - had an offer accepted, but the estate agent advised that the owners will only go ahead if we instruct the agent's preferred lawyers as they are insisting on an ‘expedited deal’. My instinct tells me that we should use a high street solicitor who is familiar with conveyancing in Cookley

It is improbable the sellers are behind this. If they require ‘a quick sale', taking such a hostile approach to a motivated purchaser is is going to put the whole deal at risk. Contact the sellers directly and make sure they understand (a)you are genuine buyers (b)you are excited to move forward, with mortgage lined up © you are unencumbered (d) you wish to move quickly (e)but you are going to instruct your own,trusted Cookley conveyancing firm - rather thanthe ones that will give the estate agent a referral fee or achieve conveyancing targets set by head office.