My wife and I are refinancing our penthouse in Doncaster with Clydesdale. We have a son approaching twenty who lives with us. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the property is forfeited by the lender. I have two questions (1) Is this document specific to the Clydesdale conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we purchased 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this extinguish his entitlement to inherit the property?

On the face of it your lawyer has done nothing wrong as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to Clydesdale. This is solely used to protect Clydesdale if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave. It does not impact your son’s right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of Clydesdale had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.

Are the BSA planning on creating a search tool with a view to list solicitors on the Coventry BS conveyancing panel for instance in Doncaster?

We would not expect to be advised of any plans on the part of the BSA to develop such a tool.

Are all Doncaster Conveyancing Quality Solicitors on the UBS conveyancing list of approved practices?

It is true that some lenders now use the accreditation scheme as the kick off point for Panel membership such as HSBC and Santander. The Law Society’s CQS accreditation however is no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. That being said,the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for solicitor practices wishing to remain on their panels.

We are getting a further advance on our home loan from Leeds Building Society as we wish to conduct alterations to our house in Doncaster. Are we obliged to choose a nearby Doncaster solicitor on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel to handle the paperwork?

Leeds Building Society do not ordinarily appoint a member of their approved list of lawyers to deal with the formalities. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Leeds Building Society list.

I recently had an offer accepted on a house in Doncaster. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an advanced payment of £175. A couple of days later, the solicitor called me to say that they were not on the Barclays 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 Barclays 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.

Do I need to pay for insurance to protect me from financial exposure to chancel repairs when buying a residence in Doncaster?

Unless a previous purchase of the house took place post 12 October 2013 you can take it that lawyers carrying out conveyancing in Doncaster to continue to propose a a chancel search and or chancel repair liability policy.

The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build apartment in Doncaster. 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 legal work.

Here are examples of a few leasehold new build enquiries that you can expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Doncaster

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. Please supply a car parking plan. There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. 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. Has the Lease plan been approved by the Land Registry and if not when will they be lodged for this purpose?