I have just been advised by my broker that my Valley the law firm I have appointed is not on the lender Conveyancing panel. How can I be certain if this is indeed the case?

The sensible course of action for you to take is to contact your Valley conveyancer. You lawyer should inform you of the situation. Where they are not on the panel they could put your in touch with solicitors on the approved list of lawyers for your bank.

I own a terraced Victorian house in Valley. Conveyancing solicitor acted for me and Nationwide Building Society. I did a free Land Registry search last week and I saw two entries: the first freehold, another for leasehold under the matching address. Is it worth asking Nationwide Building Society to clarify?

You need to assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register for mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Valley and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they remortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with buyers. You can also check the situation with your conveyancing lawyer who conducted the purchase.

I have been pointed in your direction by a number of estate agents in Valley to select a property lawyer on your site. Is there a financial upside for Estate Agents to offer your site over and above alternative conveyancing organisations?

We don’t offer any financial incentive for directing people in our direction. We found it would be just too difficult a fee as home movers will think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I getting any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.

My partner and I may need to rent out our Valley 1st floor flat temporarily due to a new job. We used a Valley conveyancing firm in 2004 but they have since shut and we did not think at the time get any advice as to whether the lease permits subletting. How do we find out?

A small minority of properties in Valley do contain a provision to say that subletting is only allowed with permission. The landlord is not entitled to unreasonably refuse but, in such cases, they would need to review references. Experience suggests that problems are usually caused by unsatisfactory tenants rather than owner-occupiers and for that reason you can expect the freeholder to take up the references and consider them carefully before granting consent.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Valley - A selection of Queries before buying

How long is the Lease? Be sure to discover if there is anything that is prohibited in the lease. By way of example some leases prohibit pets being allowed in certain buildings in Valley. If you like the propertyin Valley yet your dog can’t live with you then you have a very difficult determination.

Myself and my husband have just had an offer agreed on a property and had meeting on Wednesday with the Post Office for the mortgage. They warned me that when it comes to selecting a lawyer that unless they are on their approved list of property lawyers then we will incur an extra fee of about two hundred pounds. This is is due to the fact that they will then have to appoint a conveyancer to act on their behalf as well as the one we select on our behalf and we assume responsibility for their fees. I have requested the Post Office to furnish me with a list so I can obtain quotes only from their approved conveyancers but was told that I need to check with each individual lawyer to see if they are on the panel. Is there a list online?

Ask the Post Office what their panel criteria is for a solicitor.Thereafter ask the conveyancer of your choice whether they meet the criteria and have they acted on mortgages for the Post Office previously. If the answer to those is yes, then just clarify this with the Post Office. Another option is to make use of our search tool and we should be able to locate a property lawyer in Valley on the approved list for the Post Office.