I am purchasing a flat in St Fagans. My lawyer is not on the mortgage company approved list. Am I still permitted to use my St Fagans conveyancing solicitor notwithstanding that they are not on the lender panel of approved conveyancing solicitors?

You have a couple of choices available to you here

• Proceed with your preferred St Fagans solicitor but your bank will need to instruct a solicitor from their approved list. The net result is additional fees together with potential interruption.
• Get a new property lawyer to act in the purchase, making sure they are on the mortgage company conveyancing panel.
• Convince your lawyer to do everything possible to get accepted on the lender’s conveyancing panel

How up to date is your search tool for St Fagans conveyancing solicitors on the Aldermore conveyancing panel? Do Aldermore send you an updated list?

St Fagans conveyancing firms themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Aldermore conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Aldermore directly.

My wife and I are buying a house in St Fagans. It might be a silly question but how we can trust a lawyer? At some point we will need to put our life savings into their account. What is the protection we have from them run away with our deposit?

Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.

We are getting a further advance on our mortgage from Lloyds as we want to conduct a loft conversion to our property in St Fagans. Do we need to choose a nearby St Fagans solicitor on the Lloyds conveyancing panel to deal with the paperwork?

Lloyds would not normally instruct firms on their conveyancing panel to deal with the formalities. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Lloyds conveyancing panel.

I am selling my flat. I had a double glazing fitted in October 2007, but did not receive a FENSA certificate or Building Regulation Certificate. My purchaser’s mortgage company, TSB are being problematic. The St Fagans solicitor who is on the TSB conveyancing panel is recommending indemnity insurance as a solution but TSB are insisting on a building regulation certificate. Why do TSB have a conveyancing panel if they don't accept advice from them?

It is probably the case that TSB have referred the matter to their valuer. The reason why TSB may not want to accept indemnity insurance is because it does not give them any reassurance that the double glazing was correctly and safely installed. The indemnity insurance merely protects against enforcement action which is very unlikely anyway.

The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build apartment in St Fagans. Conveyancing is necessary evil at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. Can you give me some examples of some of the questions asked in new build legal work.

Set out below is a sample of a selection of leasehold new build enquiries that you should expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in St Fagans

There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. Please confirm the Lease plans are architect prepared. Will the freehold then be transferred for a nominal consideration (not exceeding £100) to the Management Company? Where there is an Undertaking being granted there is the risk of forfeiture of the Headlease subject to relief if one or more of the Underlessees are willing to accept the original Head Lessee’s obligations as otherwise relief will be denied to the Underlessees. The only alternatives are the Head Lessor agreeing not to forfeit the Headlease or the Head Lessee guaranteeing to the Underlessees that it will not be in breach of the Headlease.

I cannot get to my St Fagans conveyancing solicitors office to sign documents connected to my conveyancing in St Fagans – will this be problematic?

You need not be concerned. St Fagans conveyancing solicitors can deal with conveyancing transactions for clients nationally. You are unlikely to be required to attend a St Fagans conveyancers office. Almost all property lawyer can undertake all communications using post, email, telephone and fax.