I plan on acquiring a flat in West Croydon. My property lawyer is not listed on the mortgage company solicitor list. Is it possible for me to retain my West Croydon conveyancing solicitor even though they are excluded from the lender panel?

One must appoint a property lawyer to complete the formalities if you need a loan to purchase your home. The solicitor will conduct all the appropriate due diligence on the property, make sure that you will be registered as proprietor and ensure that all the necessary mortgage documentation is in place. You can select a West Croydon conveyancing practitioner of your choice. Nevertheless, if the property lawyer appointed is not on the bank conveyancing panel additional costs will be incurred as separate legal representation will be required by them. Lender panel applications may be submitted, so provided your lawyer has not historically sought membership they should take the chance to apply.

What is the first thing I need to know concerning purchase conveyancing in West Croydon?

Not many law firms or advisers will tell you this but conveyancing in West Croydon and elsewhere in England and Wales is an adversarial process. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there is an abundance of room for friction between you and other parties involved in the legal transfer of property. For example, the seller, selling agent and on occasion your bank. Appointing a solicitor for your conveyancing in West Croydon is a critical decision as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONLY party in the transaction whose role it is to look after your best interests and to protect you.

There is a definite creep in the "blame" culture- someone must be at fault for the process being so protracted. We recommend that you your first instinct should be to trust your conveyancer ahead of all other parties when it comes to the legal assignment of property.

My uncle passed away last year and as sole heir and executor I was left the house in West Croydon. The house had a relatively small loan remaining of approximately £5k. I want to transfer the title deeds into my name whilst I re-mortgage to Kent Reliance, pay off the mortgage. Is this allowed?

If you plan to refinance then Kent Reliance will insist on your using a conveyancer on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your Kent Reliance conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the Kent Reliance mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.

I am purchasing my first flat in West Croydon with the aid of help to buy. The developers would not budge the price so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The estate agent advised me not reveal to my conveyancer about this deal as it could put at risk my loan with Skipton 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.

Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold element on a house I have offered on a fortnight ago in what should have been a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. West Croydon is where the house is located. What do you suggest?

Flying freeholds in West Croydon are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside West Croydon you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds very carefully. Your lender may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in West Croydon may ascertain 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 property.