We wanted to use a conveyancing solicitor in St Bees for our house purchase. Our financial adviser has since notified us that our mortgage company Alliance & Leicester won't deal with them. Surely this is unfair competition?

A decade ago most banks had a different appetite for risk. Almost all St Bees conveyancing firms would have been on many lender panels. The financial services regulator in 2010 carried out a thematic review into mortgage fraud which concluded: mortgage lenders should know the conveyancing solicitors dealt with. Consequently, lenders are increasingly seeing more information from law firms regarding their operations and their employees as well as establishing certain criteria such a completing on a minimum amount of transactions. Many St Bees conveyancing firms that have been excluded from lender panels have a 100% healthy track record, no complaints and no claims and didn't just 'dabble' in conveyancing. St Bees is amongst the hundreds of areas where the solicitors we list are on the panel for Alliance & Leicester .

It has been five months following my purchase conveyancing in St Bees concluded. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £150,000 when infact I paid £180,000. Why the discrepancy?

The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the premises from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.

How does conveyancing in St Bees differ for new build properties?

Most buyers of new build or newly converted property in St Bees contact us having been asked by the developer to sign contracts and commit to the purchase even before the property is completed. This is because house builders in St Bees usually buy the real estate, plan the estate and want to get the plots sold off as they are building the properties. Buyers, therefore, will have to exchange contracts without actually seeing the house they are buying. To reduce the chances of losing the property, buyers should instruct conveyancers as soon as the property is reserved and mortgage applications should be submitted quickly. Due to the fact that it could be several months and even years between exchange of contracts and completion, the mortgage offer may need to be extended. It would be wise to use a lawyer who specialises in new build conveyancing especially if they are used to new build conveyancing in St Bees or who has acted in the same development.

Am I better off to choose a St Bees conveyancing practitioner based in the vicinity that I am purchasing? An old friend can perform the conveyancing however they are based a couple of hundredkilometers away.

The primary upside of using a local St Bees conveyancing firm is that you can visit the firm to execute paperwork, deliver your identification documents and pester them where appropriate. They will also have local insight which is a plus. That being said nothing is more important than finding someone that will pull out all the stops for you. If you know people who used your friend and the majority were content that must trump using an unknown St Bees conveyancing solicitor solely due to them being local.

What makes a St Bees lease problematic?

There is nothing unique about leasehold conveyancing in St Bees. All leases are unique and legal mistakes in the legal wording can sometimes mean that certain clauses are wrong. For example, if your lease is missing any of the following, it could be defective:

Insurance obligations A provision to repair to or maintain parts of the building

You may encounter difficulties when selling your property if you have a defective lease primarily because it impacts on the ability to obtain a mortgage on the property. Lloyds TSB Bank, Virgin Money, and Godiva Mortgages Ltd all have express conveyancing instructions when it comes to what is expected in a lease. Where a lender has been advised by their lawyers that the lease is defective they may refuse to grant the mortgage, forcing the buyer to pull out.

I invested in buying a split level flat in St Bees, conveyancing was carried out in 2009. Can you let me have an estimate of the premium that my landlord can legally expect in return for granting a renewal of my lease? Corresponding flats in St Bees with an extended lease are worth £180,000. The average or mid-range amount of ground rent is £65 levied per year. The lease runs out on 21st October 2083

You have 59 years left to run the likely cost is going to be between £20,900 and £24,200 as well as professional fees.

The figure above a general guide to costs for renewing a lease, but we cannot give you the actual costs in the absence of comprehensive due diligence. You should not use this information in a Notice of Claim or as an informal offer. There may be additional issues that need to be considered and you obviously should be as accurate as possible in your negotiations. Neither should you move forward placing reliance on this information without first seeking the advice of a professional.