Are the BSA planning on creating a search tool with a view to to identify solicitors on the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society conveyancing panel for instance in East Yorkshire?

We are not aware of any plans on the part of the BSA to promote such a search facility.

We have agreed to purchase a house in East Yorkshire. A rare aspect is that the roof has a solar panel. Virgin Money have issued a mortgage offer so presumably this is not a concern to them. Why is my solicitor raising questions about the panel?

As your lender is Virgin Money your lawyer must follow the conveyancing instructions contained in Part 2 of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Virgin Money. The CML Handbook contains minimum conditions for solar panel roof-space leases, and solicitors are required to report to Virgin Money where a lease fails to satisfy these conditions. The conditions relate to the installation of panels on properties countrywide and is not isolated to East Yorkshire.

I currently have a mortgage with Principality for my property in East Yorkshire. Conveyancing has been completed 12 months ago. If I am intending to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform Principality?

You must advise Principality in advance of renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Principality’s mortgage conditions. It may be that Principality 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 Principality directly. You need not do this via a Principality conveyancing panel firm.

My offer was accepted on an apartment in East Yorkshire on 18/10/2019, valuation was booked five days later, received a clean bill of health. Property lawyer instructed, so all that was missing was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to Bank of Ireland and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel. Can the lender hold off the offer?

Mortgage companies tend not to not issue an offer until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Bank of Ireland to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.

I opted to have a survey done on a house in East Yorkshire in advance of retaining conveyancers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold overhang to the house. Our surveyor has said that some banks will not issue a mortgage on this type of house.

It depends who your proposed lender is. Bank of Scotland has different requirements from Birmingham Midshires. Should you wish to call us we can investigate further with the relevant lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in East Yorkshire. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in East Yorkshire to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.

Can you offer any advice when it comes to choosing a East Yorkshire conveyancing firm to deal with our lease extension?

If you are instructing a property lawyer for your lease extension (regardless if they are a East Yorkshire conveyancing firm) it is essential that they be familiar with the legislation and specialises in this area of work. We recommend that you speak with two or three firms including non East Yorkshire conveyancing practices prior to instructing a firm. Where the conveyancing practice is ALEP accredited then so much the better. The following questions could be useful:

If the firm is not ALEP accredited then why not? How experienced is the firm with lease extension legislation?

East Yorkshire Conveyancing for Leasehold Flats - A selection of Questions you should consider before buying

Who are the managing agents? Where a East Yorkshire lease has less than 80 years it will impact the marketability of the flat. It is worth checking with your bank that they are willing to lend given the lease term. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will most likely need a lease extension at some point and you need to have some idea of what this would cost. For most East Yorkshirelease extensions you would need to own the premises for 24 months in order to be entitled to extend the lease. Plenty East Yorkshire leasehold flats will have a service charge for the upkeep of the block set by the management company. If you purchase the property you will have to pay this liability, normally quarterly accross the year. This could vary from a couple of hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built buildings. In all probability there will be a rentcharge for you to pay annual, normally this is not a large amount, say about £50-£100 but you should to check it because on occasion it can be many hundreds of pounds.

My son is just in the process of moving house, the home loan was agreed last week in principle. When the seller agreed the offer on the apartment we called the mortgage company to move forward with his. We were shocked to hear that mortgage companies do not accept all conveyancer, they need to be on their approved list, is this correct?

Mortgage Companies normally restrict either the type or the number of conveyancing practices on their panel. Typical examples of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that lenders have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any East Yorkshire conveyancing practitioner on their panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, conveyancing is not their speciality. To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime? Probably not.