My partner and I are looking to purchase a home in Westhoughton and are in fact using a Westhoughton conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Skipton Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Westhoughton lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?

Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for 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 Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer should contact your mortgage company and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Westhoughton lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.

I am looking to buy a flat and require a conveyancing solicitor in Westhoughton who is on the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society conveyancing. Could you point me in the right direction as regards a conveyancing firm?

Our service is limited to being a directory service for firms who wish to listed as being on the approved conveyancing panel for Norwich and Peterborough Building Society in certain locations such as Westhoughton. We dont recommend any particular firm.

Me and my brother have a semi-detached Victorian property in Westhoughton. Conveyancing solicitor acted for me and Nationwide Building Society. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and I saw two entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold with the exact same address. If a house is not a freehold shouldn't I have been informed?

You should 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 proprietor of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Westhoughton and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they buy they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with mortgage companies. You can also enquire as to the situation with the conveyancing solicitor who carried out the work.

I am looking for a conveyancing lawyer in Westhoughton for my house move. Is there any facility to check a firm’s record with the profession’s regulator?

You may see published Solicitor Regulator Association (SRA) decisions resulting from investigations started on or after 1 January 2008. Go to Check a solicitor's record. To find information Pre 2008, or to check a solicitors record, telephone 0870 606 2555, 08.00 - 18.00 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and 09.30 - 18.00 Tuesday. For non-uk callers, dial +44 (0)121 329 6800. The regulator could monitor telephone calls for training purposes.

I am buying a maisonette with all finances in place. I have provided solicitor with two separate forms of photo ID, bank statement, multiple utility bills. Now he requires a copy from a probate lawyer acknowledging that the funds are in place and that it has come from inheritance and not dealing E's in Ibiza.

In today’s world you will not be able to complete any Westhoughton conveyancing transaction without first providing evidence of your identity to your lawyers. This usually takes the form of a either your passport or driving licence and a utility bill. Remember if you are providing your driving licence as evidence of ID it must be both the paper part and photo card part, one is not acceptable without the other. Evidence of your source of funds is required under Money Laundering laws.