It has come to my attention via my estate agent that my Long Buckby solicitor is not on the bank Conveyancing panel. How can I be certain whether this is indeed the case?

You need to contact your Long Buckby lawyer directly. You lawyer should advise you of the situation. Where they are not on the panel they could put your in touch with solicitors on the approved list of lawyers for your bank.

My wife and I are refinancing our penthouse in Long Buckby with TSB. 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 reside at the property. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this document specific to the TSB conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we purchased 5 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?

First, rest assured that your TSB conveyancing panel solicitor is doing the right thing 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 TSB. This is solely used to protect TSB 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 TSB 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.

Is it the case that all Long Buckby solicitor practices on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel are governed by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority?

As solicitors, in order to be on the Leeds Building Society approved list of solicitors they would need to be regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. The majority of banks do permit licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such organisation would be governed by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.

We have agreed to purchase a house in Long Buckby. One unusual aspect is that the roof has a solar panel. Skipton have issued a mortgage offer so presumably this is not a concern to them. Why is my solicitor raising questions about the panel?

Given that your lender is Skipton your lawyer must follow the conveyancing requirements set out in Section 2 of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Skipton. The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook sets out minimum specifications for solar panel roof-space leases, and property lawyers are required to report to Skipton where a lease does not meet these conditions. The conditions relate to the installation of panels on properties nationwide and is not limited to Long Buckby.

After weeks of negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in Long Buckby. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their property lawyer. I paid an on account payment of £150. A couple of days later, the lawyer called me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Santander 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 Santander 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.

About to purchase a new build apartment in Long Buckby. Conveyancing is daunting 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 conveyancing.

Set out below are examples of a selection of leasehold new build enquiries that you should expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Long Buckby

Has the Lease plan been approved by the Land Registry and if not when will they be lodged for this purpose? Will the freehold then be transferred for a nominal consideration (not exceeding £100) to the Management Company? If there are lifts in the building, please confirm that the owners of flats on the ground and basement floors will not be required to contribute towards the cost of maintenance and renewal. Please supply a car parking plan. Please supply evidence that the form of Lease proposed has been approved by the Land Registry.

Is it possible to transfer to a new conveyancer as I need to find one who is on the Accord Mortgages Ltd conveyancing list. I was using a high street conveyancing solicitor in Long Buckby round the corner but the firm is not approved by Accord Mortgages Ltd

It would be our pleasure to assist you find a conveyancing solicitor in Long Buckby on the Accord Mortgages Ltd panel. Please note that the conveyancers that we list do not pay us fee if you instruct them and are fully regulated by the SRA who regulate all conveyancing solicitors in Long Buckby. In making use of search facility on this website, you can compare and instruct different solicitors and conveyancers both nationally and in Long Buckby.