My husband and I are hoping to purchase a property in Paddock Wood and have instructed a Paddock Wood conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. The Mortgage Works have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Paddock Wood lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?

When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for the purchaser's lender. 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 property lawyer 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 bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Paddock Wood lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.

My stepmother informed me that in buying a property in Paddock Wood there may be various restrictions limiting what one can do in terms of external changes to a property. Is this right?

We are aware of a number of properties in Paddock Wood which have some sort of restriction or requirement of consent to carry out external alterations. Part of the conveyancing in Paddock Wood should determine what restrictions are applicable and advising you as part of a ROT that should be sent to you.

is it true that all Paddock Wood solicitor practices on the Principality conveyancing panel are overseen by the SRA?

As a firm of solicitors, in order to be on the Principality conveyancing panel they would need to be overseen by the SRA. Some mortgage companies do permit licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such organisation would be overseen by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.

The mortgage over my property is with UBS for my property in Paddock Wood. Conveyancing was finalised a year ago. Should I wish to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform UBS?

You must advise UBS before letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of UBS’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will allow you to rent out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact UBS directly. You need not do this via a UBS conveyancing panel lawyer.

Are there restrictive covenants that are commonly picked up as part of conveyancing in Paddock Wood?

Restrictive covenants can be picked up when reviewing land registry title as part of the process of conveyancing in Paddock Wood. An 1874 stipulation that was seen was ‘The houses to be erected on the estate are each to be of a uniform elevation in accordance with the drawings to be prepared or approved by the vendor’s surveyor…’

I am purchasing my first flat in Paddock Wood with the aid of help to buy. The builders would not move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The sale representative suggested that I not reveal to my solicitor about this deal as it will affect my mortgage with Birmingham Midshires. 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.

I opted to have a survey carried out on a house in Paddock Wood before instructing solicitors. I have been told that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. Our surveyor advised that some banks tend not grant a mortgage on a flying freehold home.

It depends who your proposed lender is. Bank of Scotland has different requirements for example to Birmingham Midshires. Should you wish to telephone us we can investigate further with the relevant lender. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Paddock Wood. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Paddock Wood to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.