My wife and I are planning to acquire a home in Seahouses and are in fact using a Seahouses conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Yorkshire Building Society have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Seahouses solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?

If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is conventional 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your bank 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 lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Seahouses solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

Finally the sale completed on my house in Seahouses last April but the buyer keeps texting daily complaining that their solicitor needs to hear from mine. What should my lawyer have done following completion?

After completion of your disposal your lawyer should forward the transfer documentation and all of the paperwork to the buyer’s lawyers. Where relevant, your conveyancer must also confirm that the home loan has been repaid to the purchasers lawyers. There are no post completion procedures unique to conveyancing in Seahouses.

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

Having to all intents and purposes signed on the dotted line you must instruct a conveyancing solicitor quickly as you will have a pending a fixed date to complete the purchase. An auction property will ordinarily have an associated legal set of papers. This will likely include evidence of title and search results. If you have purchased leasehold property the auction pack may contain a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and associated conveyancing documentation pertinent to a leasehold property. You need to give this to your appointed conveyancing solicitor at the earliest opportunity. You also need to ensure that your finances are in place to complete the transaction on the set completion date.

We had selected conveyancers locally in Seahouses on the TSB solicitor panel. They have just billed me a supplemental amount for dealing with the TSB mortgage. Is this an additional conveyancing fee specified by TSB?

Unfortunately, so long as it is in their Terms of Engagement or Quote then yes your lawyer can charge a fee for this. The charge is not dictated by TSB but by your Seahouses conveyancer. Plenty of firms on the TSB panel will quote ’dealing with mortgage’ fee and others do not.

I am purchasing a property in Seahouses. One unusual aspect is that the roof has a solar panel. Solicitors conducting should look into this right? Will my lender HSBC be concerned?

Given that you are obtaining a mortgage with HSBC your lawyer must check the formal requirements set out in Section two of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for HSBC. The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook stipulates minimum conditions for solar panel roof-space leases, and property lawyers are required to report to HSBC where a lease fails to meet these conditions. The specifications relate to the installation of panels on properties nationwide and is not restricted to Seahouses.

I need some expedited conveyancing in Seahouses as I have pressure to sign on the dotted line inside one month. A mortgage is not required. Can I avoid the conveyancing searches to save fees and time?

If.Given you are not obtaining a mortgage you have the choice not to do searches although no conveyancer would advise that you don't. Drawing on our experience of conveyancing in Seahouses the following are examples of what can be revealed and therefore affect the marketability of the property: Enforcement Notices, Outstanding Fees, Overdue Grants, Unadopted Roads,...

I'm buying my first flat in Seahouses with a loan from Britannia. The builders would not reduce the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The estate agent suggested that I not inform my solicitor about this extras as it may jeopardize my mortgage with the lender. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

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.