My husband and I are buying a 3 bedroom apartment in Shrivenham with a mortgage. We wish to retain our Shrivenham lawyer, however the lender says he's not on their "panel". We have to appoint one of the bank panel solicitors or continue with our Shrivenham lawyer and pay for one of their panel ones to act for them. This feels very unfair; is there anything we can do?

Unfortunately,no. The mortgage offered to you is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the bank’s conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. A further alternative is for your Shrivenham conveyancing lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel.

The owners of the home we are looking to purchase are using a conveyancing practitioner in Shrivenham who has recommended a preliminary agreement with a payment two thousand pounds. Is it wise to enter into such agreements?

Lock out agreements are agreements between a home seller and prospective buyer giving the buyer a ‘clear field’ to the sale of the premises within an agreed time frame. Essentially, a lock out is a document stating that you should receive a contract at a later time being the contract for the actual sale. It is generally utilised for buyer protection though in some cases, the owner may enjoy an upside from such agreements as well. There are numerous positives and negatives to using them but you need to check with your conveyancer but note that it may result in costing you extra in conveyancing fees. For these reasons these agreements are not popular when it comes to conveyancing in Shrivenham.

This question may be naive but I am wet behind the ears as a 1st time purchaser of a ground floor flat in Shrivenham. Do I collect the keys to the premises on completion from my conveyancer? If so, I will instruct a High Street conveyancing solicitor in Shrivenham?

On the day of completion you will not be required to go to the conveyancers office in Shrivenham. Conveyancing lawyers for you will transfer the completion advance to the vendor’s solicitors, and once they have received this, you will be able to collect the keys from the property Agents and start moving into the property. This tends to happen early afternoon.

I have a mortgage with Yorkshire BS for my property in Shrivenham. Conveyancing was finalised 12 months ago. If I am intending to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage or inform Yorkshire BS?

Your original mortgage agreement with Yorkshire BS will provide that you need their approval prior to letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Yorkshire BS’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let 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 Yorkshire BS directly. You need not do this via a Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel firm.

After months of negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Shrivenham. My mortgage broker suggested a property lawyer. I paid an advanced payment of £150. Soon after, the conveyancer contacted me to say that they were not on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?

You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Kent Reliance panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.

I am buying my first flat in Shrivenham benefiting from help to buy. The developers would not move on the price so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not to tell my lawyer about the extras as it will affect my loan with the bank. 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.

How easy is it to use the search tool to select a conveyancing practitioner in Shrivenham on the authorised to act for my bank?

Step one is to select a lender such as Barclays , Bank of Scotland or TSB then choose your preferred area e.g. Shrivenham. Conveyancing firms in Shrivenham and nationally will then be listed.