I am progressing with the sale of my apartment in Spital and the EA has just telephoned to advise that the purchasers are appointing a new property lawyer. The excuse is that the lender will only work with property lawyers on their approved list. Why would a big named mortgage company only work with certain lawyers rather the firm that they want to appoint for their conveyancing in Spital ?

UK lenders have always had panels of law firms that can represent them, but in recent years big names such as Yorkshire Building Society, have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have acted for them for many years.

Lenders point to the increase in fraud by way of justification for the cull – criteria have been tightened as a smaller panel is easier to monitor. No lender will say how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society says it is hearing daily from firms that have been removed from panels. Some are unaware that they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. The buyers are not going to have any impact on this.

My partner and I intend to remortgage our flat in Spital with . We have a son 18 who lives with us. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose any adults other than ourselves who lives in the flat. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the flat is repossessed. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this document specific to the conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we purchased 3 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this extinguish his rights to inherit the property?

First, rest assured that your conveyancing panel solicitor is doing the right thing as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to . This is solely used to protect if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave. It does not impact your son’s right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.

Various internet forums that I have come across warn that are the main cause of stalling in Spital conveyancing transactions. Is there any truth in this?

The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) released conclusions of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not feature amongst the common causes of delays in the conveyancing process. Local searches are unlikely to be the root cause of slowing down conveyancing in Spital.

Me and my brother purchased a terraced Edwardian property in Spital. Conveyancing practitioner acted for me and . I did a free Land Registry search last week and there are a couple of entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold under the matching address. I'd like to know for sure, how can I find out??

You need to assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Spital and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they sell they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with buyers. You can also question the situation with the conveyancing solicitor who carried out the work.

Is it best to use a Spital conveyancing solicitor based in the area that I am purchasing? I have an old university friend who can conduct the legal formalities however her office is 400kilometers away.

The primary upside of using a local Spital conveyancing practice is that you can drop in to execute paperwork, present your identification documents and pester them where appropriate. They will also have local insight which is a bonus. That being said nothing is more important than finding someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If other friends have instructed your friend and the majority were content that must trump using an unfamiliar Spital conveyancing lawyer solely due to them being round the corner.