My husband and I are hoping to purchase a home in Grove Park and have appointed a Grove Park conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Barclays Direct have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Grove Park conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?

When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' solicitors to also represent the mortgage company. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your mortgage company and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Grove Park lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

A friend recommended that if I am buying in Grove Park I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. Can you explain what the purpose of this search is?

A search of this type is occasionally quoted for as part of the standard Grove Park conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of about 40 pages, listing and setting out important information about Grove Park around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Grove Park Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type 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 information regarding Grove Park.

I bought my house on 7 May and the transaction details is not yet on the land registry website. Need I be worried? My conveyancing solicitor in Grove Park advises it would be registered in a couple of weeks. Are transfers in Grove Park uniquely lengthy to register?

There is nothing unique about conveyancing in Grove Park registration formalities. Rather than based on location, timescales can differ depending on who lodges the application, whether there are errors and whether the Land registry must send notices to any third parties. As of today approximately three quarters of submission are fully dealt with within 12 days but occasionally there can be extensive delays. Registration is effected once the buyer is living at the property therefore an expedited registration is not always top priority but if it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your lawyers can speak with the land registry and explain the circumstances.

I am purchasing my first flat in Grove Park with a mortgage from Halifax. The sellers would not reduce the price so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The sale representative told me not disclose to my solicitor about the side-deal as it may adversely affect my mortgage with the lender. Should I keep quiet?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.

Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.

Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.

Am I better off to choose a Grove Park conveyancing practitioner who is local to the property I am purchasing? I have an old university friend who can execute the legal work however her office is 400kilometers away.

The benefit of a high street Grove Park conveyancing practice is that you can visit the firm to execute documents, deliver your identification documents and apply pressure on them if necessary. Having local Grove Park know how is a plus. However it's more important to get someone that will do a good and efficient job. If you know people who used your friend and the majority were content that must surpass using an unknown Grove Park conveyancing lawyer just because they are based in the area.