I am acquiring a house for cash in Yeadon. I have been living for the last dozen years in Yeadon. Conveyancing searches are a lot of money. As I have knowledge of the area and road intimately should I not bother getting the solicitor to do all the conveyancing searches?

In the absence of a mortgage, then almost all of the Yeadon conveyancing searches are at your discretion. Your lawyer will try and sway you, no-doubt strongly, that you should have searches done, but he is duty bound to take that path of encouragement . One thing to consider; if you are intend to dispose of the house in the future, it will be of relevance to your prospective buyer what the searches disclose. On occasion houses with no practical issues can still throw up unexpected search results. A good conveyancing solicitor in Yeadon will provide you some helpful advice in this regard.

Why is leasehold purchase conveyancing in Yeadon costs more?

Yeadon leasehold properties involve far more paperwork than a freehold purchase, and therefore takes more time to examine and advise upon.Conveyancing will involve the lease having to be checked which is usually a lengthy document, queries raised to ensure that the covenants and conditions have been observed. If it is a flat there will be a management company in existence and the accounts of this will need to be checked and enquiries raised to ensure it is operating efficiently and that all monies due have been paid by the Seller to the company and if not ensuring that money is paid up to date or the appropriate undertakings obtained.

I had intended to instruct a conveyancing solicitor in Yeadon for our house purchase. Our financial adviser has since advised us that our bank Britannia won't deal with them. Why is this not regarded as unduly restrictive?

Mortgage Companies ordinarily restrict either the type or the number of conveyancing practices on their member panel. A common example of such restriction(s) being that a firm must not be a sole practitioner. As well as restricting the profile of firm, some have reduced the number of solicitor practices they allow to act for them. You should note that Britannia have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of Britannia Conveyancer Panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of solicitor panels since 2008 even though there remains mixed views about the level of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Figures from the Land Registry reveal that hundreds of law firms, including some in or near Yeadon only conduct very few conveyances per annum.

A colleague suggested that if I am purchasing in Yeadon I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?

This is a search is sometimes included in the estimate for your Yeadon conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of about 40 pages, listing and setting out significant information about Yeadon around the property and the people living there. It includes an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the local Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the demographics of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful information regarding Yeadon.

My fiance and I are purchasing a 2 room maisonettein Yeadon with a mortgage from a mortgage company. We have a solicitor in Yeadon but our lender inform us now that he's not on their "panel". It seems we have little choice but to instruct one of the our mortgage company panel firms or stay with our Yeadon solicitor and incur the extra costs for one of their panel ones to represent them. This seems very unfair; is there anything we can do?

Unfortunately,no. The mortgage company home loan offered to you is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that solicitors will on the bank's conveyancing panel. Until recently, most banks had open panels, including almost all conveyancing solicitors in Yeadon : a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. Another option that might be available is for your lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for your mortgage company.