My husband and I are purchasing a leasehold flat in Custom House. My lawyer is not listed on the bank solicitor panel. Am I still permitted to appoint my Custom House conveyancing solicitor even though they are not on the lender panel?

Your options include

• Complete the deal with your chosen Custom House conveyancing practitioner but your mortgage company will undoubtedly use a conveyancing practitioner on their conveyancing panel. This will result in additional charges and potential interruption.
• Appoint a new property lawyer to act in the purchase, ensuring that they are on the mortgage company conveyancing panel.
• Convince your property lawyer to pull out all the stops to join the bank’s conveyancing panel

We are buying a apartment in Custom House. It might be a silly question but how we can trust a solicitor? On completion day we will need to put money into their account. What is the protection we have from them run away with our deposit?

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.

I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Custom House. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their solicitor. I paid an upfront payment of £200. A few days later, the conveyancer contacted me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the TSB 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 TSB 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.

I have instructed a Custom House solicitor having made sure that they are on the Aldermore conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?

Aldermore will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Aldermore will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your conveyancer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Custom House postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Aldermore, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Custom House.

I purchased my flat on 9 July and my personal details are still not registered. Need I be worried? My conveyancing solicitor in Custom House expressed confidence that it would be recorded inside ten days. Are transfers in Custom House particularly slow to register?

As far as conveyancing in Custom House is concerned, registration is no quicker or slower than the rest of England and Wales. Rather than based on location, timescales can vary depending on who lodges the application, whether it is in order and if the Land registry need to notify any third persons or bodies. Currently approximately 80% of submission are fully dealt with in less than three weeks but some can be subject to protracted delays. Registration takes place after the new owner has moved in to the premises thus 'speed' is not usually top priority yet if it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your lawyers could communicate with the Registry to express the reasoning for the application to be prioritised.

The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build apartment in Custom House. Conveyancing is daunting at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. What sort of enquires would be asked in new build conveyancing.

Set out below is a sample of a selection of leasehold new build enquiries that you should expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Custom House

Will the freehold then be transferred for a nominal consideration (not exceeding £100) to the Management Company? Where service of notices and proceedings can be at the property demised please confirm that this can be amended to include simultaneous services at the Lessees’ solicitors’ offices where the Lessee from time to time is not resident in the UK - such solicitors may be varied by notice in writing to the Landlord from time to time but otherwise will be as previously specified. Will control of the Management Company (if any) be handed over to purchasers on completion of the last sale or earlier? The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme. Has the Lease plan been approved by the Land Registry and if not when will they be lodged for this purpose?

I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold issue on a house I have offered on a fortnight ago in what was supposed to be a simple, no chain conveyancing. Custom House is the location of the property. Can you shed any light on this issue?

Flying freeholds in Custom House are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Custom House you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds diligently. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Custom House may ascertain 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.