My wife and I are looking to purchase a flat in Penley and are in fact using a Penley conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Yorkshire Building Society have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Penley solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?

When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is usual for the purchasers' solicitors 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 Quality 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Penley lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

My bid for a property was accepted at auction in Penley. Conveyancing is needed. What happens now?

Now that you are legally committed yourself to purchase you will need to hire the services of a conveyancing solicitor quickly as you now have a pending a fixed date to complete the purchase. Every auction property should have a corresponding auction set of papers. This should include evidence of title and search results. Where you are dealing with leasehold property the legal papers should provide a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and associated conveyancing paperwork specific to a leasehold property. You should hand this to your appointed conveyancing solicitor at the earliest opportunity. Do make sure that your finances are in place to complete the transaction on the set completion date.

When it comes to mortgage companies such as Virgin Money, do Penley solicitors incur an annual charge to be on the conveyancing panel?

We are unaware of any lender fees to register on their panel, although some do levy an administration charge to deal with the processing of the conveyancing panel application.

We previously appointed conveyancing lawyers locally in Penley on the Aldermore solicitor panel. They are now charging me a further charge for dealing with the Aldermore mortgage. Is this an additional conveyancing fee set by Aldermore?

As unfair as it may seem, as long as it’s in their Terms of Engagement or Quote then yes your property lawyer is entitled to levy a fee for this. This charge is not dictated by Aldermore but by your Penley conveyancing practitioner. Plenty of firms on the Aldermore panel will quote an ‘acting for lender’ fee and others do not.

I have justdiscovered that Arc property Solicitors have been shut down. They carried out my conveyancing in Penley for a purchase of a leasehold flat 18 months ago. How can I check that my home is in my name in the name of the previous owner?

The easiest way to check if the premises is in your name, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Penley conveyancing specialists.

Due to the advice of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in Penley ahead of retaining solicitors. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold aspect to the property. The surveyor has said that some banks tend refuse to grant a mortgage on this type of property.

It varies from the lender to lender. Santander has different instructions for example to Nationwide. If you e-mail us we can investigate further via the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Penley. Conveyancing may be slightly more expensive based on your lender's requirements.

I need to consider estimates for conveyancing in Penley from numerous property lawyer and choose one. Should I tell them to hold tight until I a suitable house to buy.

We suggest that you only ask your conveyancer to start work and order searches once the offer has been agreed to on the property especially as Penley conveyancing searches are a couple of hundred pounds.