I am obtaining a mortgage with Lloyds. I would like to enlist the help of a Licensed Conveyancer in Stretford. Does the Lloyds Solicitor panel allow for conveyancers regulated by the CLC?

The Lloyds conveyancing panel is, like many other lenders, associated to the CML or BSA, open to Licensed Conveyancers regulated by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.

We have very assertive vendors who has insisted on a lock out contract with a down payment 10k. Are such agreements sensible?

Exclusivity contracts are contracts binding a property vendor and purchaser giving the buyer the sole right to purchase the premises for a set period of time. For all intents and purposes, an exclusivity agreement is a contract stating that you will receive a contract at a later time which is the main conveyancing contract. It is generally used for buyer confidence though in some cases, the owner may stand to benefit from such agreements as well. There are various positives and negatives to having them but you need to check with your solicitor but beware that it may result in incurring more in conveyancing charges. For this these contracts are avoided when it comes to conveyancing in Stretford.

I am selling my flat in Stretford. Does my conveyancing practitioner have to be required to be on the Principality conveyancing panel in order to deal with paying off my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Principality conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their specifications fairly frequently at the moment.

Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to our property are lost. The conveyancers who did the conveyancing in Stretford 4 years ago no longer exist. What do I do?

Gone are the days when you need to have the physical deeds to evidence that you are the registered proprietor of land or property, given that the Land Registry hold details of all registered land or property electronically.

I'm purchasing a new build house in Stretford with the aid of help to buy. The builders would not move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not reveal to my solicitor about this extras as it will adversely affect my mortgage with Yorkshire Building Society. 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.