I am progressing with the sale of my maisonette in Hale and the EA has just e-mailed to advise that the buyers are swapping solicitor. The excuse is that the bank will only work with property lawyers on their conveyancing panel. On what basis would a big named lender only engage with specific lawyers rather the firm that they want to select to handle their conveyancing in Hale ?

UK lenders have always had panels of law firms they are content to work with, but in the past few years big names such as Lloyds Banking Group, have considered and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have acted for them for many years.

Lenders point to the increase in fraud by way of justification for the pruning – criteria have been stiffened as a smaller panel is easier to monitor. No lender will say how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society says it is hearing daily from firms that have been removed from panels. Plenty of firms are unaware that they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. The buyers are not going to have any sway in the decision.

As a first time buyer what is the most important number one tip you can give me about purchase conveyancing in Hale?

Not many law firms or advisers will tell you this but conveyancing in Hale or throughout Greater Manchester is an adversarial process. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there exists plenty of room for conflict between you and others involved in the ownership transfer. For instance, the vendor, property agent and on occasion a mortgage company. Appointing a solicitor for your conveyancing in Hale an important selection as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the SOLE person in the transaction whose interest is to protect your best interests and to protect you.

We are witnessing a definite ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone has to be blamed for the process taking so long. We recommend that you your first instinct should be to trust your conveyancer ahead of the other players when it comes to the legal transfer of property.

What happens if my lawyer’s firm is suspended from the Nationwide Solicitor panel ahead of completing my conveyancing in Hale?

The first thing to point out is that, this is a very rare occurrence. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have to instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by a regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit at a cost.

It has been 4 months since my purchase conveyancing in Hale took place. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £200,000 when infact I paid £180,000. Why the discrepancy?

The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the premises from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.

I am purchasing my first flat in Hale with a mortgage from Virgin Money. The developers refused to budge the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of fixtures and fittings instead. The sale representative advised me not inform my lawyer about this extras as it will adversely affect my mortgage with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder 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.