I am progressing with the sale of my house in Penllergaer and the estate agent has just e-mailed to warn that the purchasers are appointing a new property lawyer. The reason given is that the bank will only deal with property lawyers on their conveyancing panel. Why would a big named mortgage company only engage with specific solicitors rather the firm that they want to choose to handle their conveyancing in Penllergaer ?

Lenders have always had an approved set of law firms they are willing to work with, but in recent years big names such as Nationwide, have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for more than 25 years.

Mortgage companies attribute this action to a rise in fraud by way of justification for the reduction – criteria have been narrowed as a smaller panel is easier to oversee. Banks tend not to disclose 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. Some 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. Your buyers are not going to have any sway in the decision.

I am purchasing a property for cash in Penllergaer. I have been residing for the last 15 years in Penllergaer. Conveyancing searches are expensive. As I know the area and road intimately must I have all the conveyancing searches?

If you not getting a mortgage, then almost all of the Penllergaer conveyancing searches are at your discretion. Your solicitor will try and steer you, perhaps strongly, that you should have searches completed, but he is duty bound to do this. Do consider; if you are going to dispose of the house in the future, it will likely be be of importance to your future buyer what the searches reveal. Sometimes houses with functional issues can still throw up detrimental search results. A competent conveyancing solicitor in Penllergaer should provide you some helpful advice concerning this.

The Penllergaer conveyancing solicitors that just started acting on my house acquisition in Penllergaer have suddenly closed. They were on acting for me because I had to have a solicitor on the Santander conveyancing panel and my preferred Penllergaer lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take one hundred and fifty pounds for searches. What do I do now?

If you have an estate agent involved then inform them immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Santander conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers may be able to help.

I am intent on selling our house in Penllergaer and the buyers lawyers are claiming that there is a risk of it being built land that was not decontaminated. A local conveyancer would know this is not the case. It does beg the question why the purchasers are using an online conveyancing firm as opposed to a conveyancing solicitor in Penllergaer. Having lived in Penllergaer for 4 years we know of no issue. Do we get in touch with our local Authority to obtain confirmation need.

It would appear that you have a conveyancing solicitor already. Are they able to advise? You need to check with your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out life insurance to cover that same illness)

Should I be concerned by estate agents that I am dealing with are encouraging me to use a nationwide conveyancing firm as opposed to a local Penllergaer conveyancing practice?

As with many service providers, often referrals from relatives can be worth their weight in gold. But there are many parties with a keen interest in a conveyancing deal; estate agents, financial adviser and lenders may recommend lawyers to retain. On occasion the solicitors might be known to one of the organisations as experts in their field, but sometimes there is an underlying financial incentive behind the endorsement. You have the right to appoint your preferred conveyancer. You need to be aware that some lenders specify a panel list of solicitors you have to use for the lender aspect of your house move.