Is it the case that all Darley Abbey solicitors on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel are overseen by the SRA?

As solicitors, in order to be on the Kent Reliance approved list of solicitors they would need to be overseen by the SRA. The majority of mortgage companies do allow licenced conveyancers on their panel and in that case the organisation would be overseen by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.

I have paid off my mortgage with Yorkshire BS. I assume I don't need a Darley Abbey conveyancing practitioner on the Yorkshire BS panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?

If you have finished paying off your Yorkshire BS mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Yorkshire BS mortgage from the register. Yorkshire BS, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:

1. but are not moving to another property
2. where Yorkshire BS has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
3. Yorkshire BS has instructed the Land Registry to do so

After weeks of negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Darley Abbey. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their conveyancing practitioner. I paid an on account payment of £225. Shortly after, the property lawyer called me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Clydesdale 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 Clydesdale 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 been told that property searches are the number one reason for delay in Darley Abbey house deals. Is there any truth in this?

The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) released findings of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not figure amongst the top 10 causes of hindrances in the conveyancing process. Searches are not likely to be the root cause of slowing down conveyancing in Darley Abbey.

I am buying a new build apartment in Darley Abbey. Conveyancing is daunting 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.

Here is a sample of a selection of leasehold new build questions that you may expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Darley Abbey

Please supply a car parking plan. If there are lifts in the building, please confirm that the owners of flats on the ground and basement floors will not be required to contribute towards the cost of maintenance and renewal. Please provide evidence that the form of Lease proposed has been approved by the Land Registry. Please confirm the Lease plans are architect prepared. The Lease must contain a provision on behalf of the Vendor to pay the service charges in respect of unoccupied units in order to ensure that all services can be provided.

I decided to have a survey carried out on a property in Darley Abbey prior to appointing conveyancers. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. Our surveyor has said that some lenders may not issue a loan on this type of premises.

It depends who your proposed lender is. Bank of Scotland has different instructions for example to Birmingham Midshires. Should you wish to telephone us we can look into this further via the relevant lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Darley Abbey. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.

We're FTB’s - had an offer accepted, but the agent informed us that the seller will only go ahead if we use the agent's recommended solicitors as they are insisting on a ‘quick sale’. My instinct tells me that we should use a high street conveyancer with experience of conveyancing in Darley Abbey

We suspect that the owner is not behind this requirement. Should the vendor require ‘a quick sale', taking such a hostile approach to a motivated buyer is is going to put the whole deal at risk. Bypass the agents and go straight to the owners and explain that (a)you are genuine buyers (b)you are ready to progress, with mortgage lined up © you have nothing to sell (d) you intend to proceed fast (e)but you intend to instruct your preferred Darley Abbey conveyancing solicitors - rather thanthose that will give the estate agent a kickback or achieve conveyancing figures pre-set by corporate headquarters.