I am five weeks into the sale of my maisonette in North West London and the EA has just e-mailed to warn that the buyers are appointing a new conveyancer. The excuse is that the mortgage company will only deal with solicitors on their approved list. On what basis would a leading mortgage company only deal with specific solicitors rather the firm that they want to appoint to handle their conveyancing in North West London ?

Lenders have always had an approved set of law firms that can act for them, but in the last few years big names such as Yorkshire Building Society, have considered and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have acted for them for over 25 years.

Mortgage companies point to the increase in fraud as the reason for the cull – criteria have been tightened as a smaller panel is easier to monitor. Banks tend not to reveal how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society claims that it is being contacted daily by practices that have been removed from panels. Plenty of firms do not even realise 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 impact on this.

We are looking to buy a house and require a conveyancing solicitor in North West London who is on the Co-operative conveyancing panel. Could you point me in the right direction as regards a conveyancing firm?

Our service is limited to being a directory service for firms who wish to be listed as being on the approved conveyancing panel for Co-operative . We don't recommend any particular firms conducting conveyancing in North West London.

Is it necessary during the course of the conveyancing process to visit the offices of the solicitor to execute the mortgage deed? If so, I will instruct a firm who offer conveyancing in North West London so that I can attend their offices if necessary.

As opposed to 15 years ago, most mortgage companies no longer oblige their conveyancing panel lawyer to witness the borrowers signature. You will still be obliged to hand over identification documents and there are still distinct advantages to using a locally based ayer, in your case a conveyancing solicitor in North West London.

It has been four months since my purchase conveyancing in North West London took place. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £200,000 when infact I paid £215,000. 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 asset 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 looking for a leasehold apartment up to £245,000 and found one near me in North West London I like with amenity areas and station in the vicinity, however it only has 51 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in North West London suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?

If you need a home loan the shortness of the lease will likely be problematic. Discount the price by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing proprietor has owned the premises for at least 2 years you could ask them to start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should consult your conveyancing solicitor about this.