My fiance and I are hoping to buy a flat in Washington and are in fact using a Washington conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Barclays Direct have this evening contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Washington lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?

When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is conventional 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 bank 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Washington solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

Can I use your services to recommend a Conveyancing solicitor in Washington even if I’m not purchasing or selling a house, for example where I intend to acquire a shop in Washington with a mortgage from Accord Mortgages Ltd?

Our comparison service is mainly there to help choose residential conveyancing solicitors in Washington but we have set out towards the end of this page a selection of Washington commercial conveyancing firms. You should speak with the solicitors directly to see if they can also act for Accord Mortgages Ltd

is it true that all Washington solicitor practices on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel are overseen by the SRA?

As a firm of solicitors, in order to be on the Kent Reliance approved list of solicitors they would need to be regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. Many lenders do allow licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such organisation would be overseen by the CLC.

We previously chose solicitors with offices in Washington on the Coventry BS solicitor approved list. They have just billed me a supplemental sum for the legal aspects of the Coventry BS mortgage. Is this an additional conveyancing fee specified by Coventry BS?

Provided it is contained in their Terms and Conditions or estimate then yes your conveyancer can levy a fee for this. The charge is not dictated by Coventry BS but by your Washington lawyer. Plenty of firms on the Coventry BS panel will quote an ‘acting for lender’ fee but many practices incorporate it on their overall fee.

UBS have agreed my home loan in principle, my offer on a flat in Washington has been agreed to, what are the next steps?

Your property agent will wish to know who your solicitors are (ensure that the solicitors are on the lender’s approved list). Telephone UBS or the financial adviser and finish off any relevant forms. UBS will sellect a valuer who will get in contact with the estate agent or seller to arrange an appointment. Once conducted (assuming no problems) it takes on average ten days to get a mortgage offer. UBS will send the offer to you and your property lawyers. The legal work will then take it’s course according the nature and complexity of the conveyancing in Washington.

I'm purchasing a new build house in Washington with the aid of help to buy. The builders refused to move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The estate agent advised me not reveal to my conveyancer about the deal as it could adversely affect my loan with the lender. 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.

Hoping to buy a property located in Washington and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Washington. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Washington area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?

Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Washington. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found