My wife and I are looking to acquire a property in St Neots and have instructed a St Neots conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Nationwide Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our St Neots solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?

If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 mortgage company 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own St Neots solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

Our solicitor has uncovered a a problem with the lease for the property we are buying in St Neots. The other side have put forward defective title insurance as a solution. We are content with insurance and will cover the costs. Our conveyancing practitioner says that he must check that the mortgage company is content with this solution. Who is the client here, us or the lender?

The short answer to your last question is that, notwithstanding the potential for a conflict of interest, you and the mortgage company are the client. Your lawyer must comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions require your lawyer to disclose issues such as defects with the lease so that the lender can be afforded the opportunity to check with their valuer as to the extent that the value of the property is affected. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your conveyancer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.

In scouring online forums for a conveyancing solicitor in St Neots, most post that I must instruct a CQS assured solicitor. Can you explain what CQS is?

The Law Society's Conveyancing Quality Scheme is the recognised kitemark for legal experts in home moving process, trusted by some of the UK's major lenders. In 2011-12 the Conveyancing Quality Scheme was officially recognised by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). CQS is not a scheme offered by the Society for Licensed Conveyancers. St Neots is one of the many areas in England and Wales where there are CQS solicitors.

I'm buying my first flat in St Neots benefiting from help to buy. The sellers would not move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The property agent told me not to tell my conveyancer about the extras as it may jeopardize my loan with Leeds Building Society. Should I keep quiet?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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.

What tools are available to locate a St Neots law firm on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel? I have a car and am willing to travel upto 10miles to meet the lawyer.

Feel free to make use of the tool on this page. Please select a bank and your location and you will see a number of St Neots conveyancing lawyers located nearest you. We have listed some St Neots conveyancing firms at the bottom of this page and you can ring them to check if they are on the Clydesdale panel