My fiance and I are hoping to buy a house in Hurworth and have instructed a Hurworth conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Santander have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Hurworth lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?

If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 Accreditation 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 solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Hurworth lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

What is your number one tip for finding a conveyancing solicitor in Hurworth

It would be unwise to be swayed by the lowest Hurworth conveyancing costs illustration. You really do get what you pay for when it comes to conveyancing solicitors. A cheap quote may mean that the conveyancing solicitor is handling a lot of jobs at one time and you won’t get the quality of service and the attention that you need. It is, however, wise to use a conveyancer who has a fixed fee on a no sale, no fee basis. This way, you know exactly what you’ll have to pay in ahead of the deal.

I am assisting my sister sell her house in Hurworth. Will the conveyancing solicitor order the energy assessment or do I organise this?

After the demise of Home Information Packs, energy assessments was kept a compulsory element of moving house. An energy assessment should be commissioned in advance of the property being marketed. It is not something that lawyers ordinarily arrange. Where you are instructing a Hurworth conveyancing practitioner they may help arrange energy performance certificates due to their relationships with long established Hurworth assessors

I'm the sole beneficiary of my late grandmother’s estate with all property in now in my sole name, including the house in Hurworth. Conveyancing formalities meant that the Land Registry date was in June. I now wish to sell up. I do know about the CML 6 month 'rule', which means that my property ownership could be treated the same way as though I had purchased the house in June. Is the property unsalable for six months?

The CML handbook mandates conveyancers to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." Technically you may be impacted by that. How practical a view lenders take of it, depend on the bank as this requirement is chiefly there to identify subsales or the wholesaling and assigning of properties.

What will a local search tell me regarding the house I am buying in Hurworth?

Hurworth conveyancing often starts with the ordering local authority searches directly from your local Authority or via a personal search company such as Xpress Legal The local search is essential in every Hurworth conveyancing purchase; that is if you wish to avoid any nasty surprises after you move into your new home. The search will supply data on, amongst other things, details on planning applications relevant to the premises (whether granted or refused), building control history, any enforcement action, restrictions on permitted development, nearby road schemes, contaminated land and radon gas; in all a total of thirteen topic sections.

Just bought a semi-detached house in Hurworth , What is the estimated time for the Land Registry to record the transfer to my name? My Hurworth conveyancing solicitor has been painfully slow, so I want to check that my purchase is recorded.

There is nothing unique about conveyancing in Hurworth registration formalities. As opposed to being determined by geographic area, timescales can adjust according to who lodges the application, whether there are errors and if the Land registry have to notify any 3rd persons or bodies. As of today roughly 80% of submission are fully addressed in less than three weeks but some can be subject to protracted delays. Historically registration takes place after the purchaser has moved in to the premises thus 'speed' is not usually an essential issue yet if there is a degree of urgency associated with the registration then you or your lawyers can contact the land registry and explain the circumstances.

I am buying a new build house in Hurworth with the aid of help to buy. The builders refused to budge the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of additionals instead. The estate agent advised me not disclose to my solicitor about this deal as it would jeopardize my loan with the bank. Is this normal?.

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.