We are selling our home in Sunderland. Will my property lawyer need to be on the Skipton conveyancing panel in order to deal with repayment of my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Skipton 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 panel criteria fairly frequently at the moment.

The deeds to our property are lost. The lawyers who handled the conveyancing in Sunderland 10 years ago are no longer around. What do I do?

In today’s world there are copies made of almost everything, and your conveyancer will know precisely where to locate all the appropriate documentation so you can buy or dispose of your property without any difficulty. If duplicates are not available, your lawyer can arrange cover in the form of insurance or indemnities protecting you against future claims on your property.

I am buying my first flat in Sunderland benefiting from help to buy. The sellers would not move on the price so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The house builders rep suggested that I not inform my lawyer about the extras as it may affect my loan with the lender. Is this normal?.

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.

Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a property I put an offer in a fortnight ago in what should have been a straight forward, chain free conveyancing. Sunderland is the location of the property. Can you shed any light on this issue?

Flying freeholds in Sunderland are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Sunderland you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds very carefully. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Sunderland may decide that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold premises.

I'm converting the mortgage on my primary home to a buy to let loan with Birmingham Midshires and I will use the rest of the raised equity as a down payment on a second house. The neighborhood we are talking about is Sunderland. Will your lawyers be able to act for both sets of banks and tie in the conveyances?

Make use of our comparison tool on this site to be sure that the lawyers are approved by both lenders. On the basis that they are the conveyancer should be able to tie up the two deals but you should talk with you lawyer and communicate your desired outcome and needs.