I have decided to exercise my right to buy my property in Wealdstone off the council. I have a mortgage agreed with Co-operative. Conveyancing is not something I have any knowledge of. Can I proceed without a solicitor easily? I think we can but we keep being told I should use one. Any advice?

It is not advisable to proceed with a house purchase without a solicitor. The council's solicitor are not acting for you. You need a solicitor for a number reasons. One of which is to verify what plans the Council have for repairs and refurbishment for the next five years. Many leaseholders have been stung for contributions of thousands of pounds. In any event, if you are getting a mortgage with Co-operative, you will need to appoint a solicitor on the Co-operative conveyancing panel.

The formalities of my purchase has taken place for my property in Wealdstone. Conveyancing was of an acceptable standard but I would like to complain about the lender. How does one go about formally complaining?

Almost all banks and building societies have complaints procedures. Your first port of call should be one of the lender’s branches or the Customer Services Team at head office. Ordinarily complaints to a lender are sorted out very quickly. However if you are not satisfied that the matter is not resolved you can write to Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR who will take matters further.

After weeks of negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Wealdstone. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their solicitor. I paid an advanced payment of £225. Soon after, the solicitor contacted me to say that they were not on the Barclays conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?

You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Barclays panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.

It has been 3 months following my purchase conveyancing in Wealdstone took place. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £200,000 when infact I paid £160,000. Why the discrepancy?

The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the asset from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.

I'm purchasing my first flat in Wealdstone with a mortgage from Godiva Mortgages Ltd. The developers would not move on the amount so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The house builders rep told me not inform my solicitor about the extras as it may put at risk my mortgage with Godiva Mortgages Ltd. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

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 house I have offered on last month in what should have been a simple, chain free conveyancing. Wealdstone is the location of the property. What do you suggest?

Flying freeholds in Wealdstone are not the norm but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Wealdstone 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 Wealdstone 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 residence.

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

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