My wife and I are hoping to purchase a property in Market Drayton and have appointed a Market Drayton conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Clydesdale have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Market Drayton conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?

Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional 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 lender 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 Market Drayton lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

Is it the case that all Market Drayton CQS (Conveyancing Quality Scheme) solicitors are on the HSBC conveyancing panel?

A selection of banks and building societies now make use of CQS as the kick off point for Panel membership such as HSBC and Santander. CQS accreditation however gives no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. Nevertheless,the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for firms wishing to remain on their panels.

Last month we had a mortgage agreed in principle with Nationwide. Market Drayton conveyancing lawyers have been selected. What is the average time that one could expect to receive a mortgage offer from Nationwide?

There is no definitive answer here. Have Nationwide completed the valuation? Have you advised Nationwide as to your lawyers' details and checked that your lawyers are on the Nationwide conveyancing panel? Sometimes it can take as long as six weeks for a mortgage offer to be issued.

After months of negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in Market Drayton. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an advanced payment of £175. Shortly after, the conveyancing practitioner called me to say that they were not on the Principality 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 Principality 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.

It has been four months following my purchase conveyancing in Market Drayton concluded. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £200,000 when infact I paid £170,000. 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 residence 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 want to rent out my leasehold apartment in Market Drayton. Conveyancing solicitor who did the purchase is retired - so can't ask him. Do I need to ask my freeholder for their consent?

Some leases for properties in Market Drayton do contain a provision to say that subletting is only allowed with permission. The landlord is not entitled to unreasonably withhold but, in such cases, they would need to review references. Experience dictates that problems are usually caused by unsatisfactory tenants rather than owner-occupiers and for that reason you can expect the freeholder to take up the references and consider them carefully before granting consent.

Market Drayton Leasehold Conveyancing - Sample of Queries Prior to buying

Plenty Market Drayton leasehold apartments will have a service bill for the upkeep of the block invoiced by the landlord. Where you purchase the flat you will have to pay this charge, normally quarterly during the year. This may differ from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for buildings with lifts and large communal grounds. There will also be a ground rent to be met annual, normally this is not a large amount, say around £25-£75 but you should to enquire it because on occasion it can be prohibitively expensive. It is important to be aware if changing the roof or some other significant cost is due shortly to be shared by the tenants and will dramatically increase the the maintenance costs or require a one time invoice. This information is helpful as a) areas could cause problems for the building as the common areas may start to deteriorate if maintenance remain unpaid b) if the leasehold owners have an issue with the running of the building you will need to know about it

Why do I have to supply my conveyancer with a list of items of ID ahead of starting my conveyancing in Market Drayton?

Market Drayton conveyancing practitioners are obliged by the Law Society, SRA, the Land Registry and current Money Laundering Regulations to record that the have verified the identity of their clients. It will also be a condition of your lender where you are taking a mortgage. In addition they have to complete various forms, particularly those relating to Land Tax and need to have information such as your full names, national insurance number and DOB.