My wife and I are looking to acquire a home in Clare and have appointed a Clare conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Nationwide Building Society have this morning contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Clare lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?

When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is standard 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 lender 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Clare solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.

Can you clarify what the consequences are if my lawyer’s firm is expelled from the Lloyds Conveyancing panel ahead of completing my conveyancing in Clare?

The first thing to point out is that, this is a very rare occurrence. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have to instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by a regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit at a cost.

The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build apartment in Clare. Conveyancing is necessary evil at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. Can you give me some examples of some of the questions asked in new build legal work.

Set out below is a sample of a few leasehold new build enquiries that you can expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Clare

Will the freehold then be transferred for a nominal consideration (not exceeding £100) to the Management Company? Will control of the Management Company (if any) be handed over to purchasers on completion of the last sale or earlier? If there are lifts in the building, please confirm that the owners of flats on the ground and basement floors will not be required to contribute towards the cost of maintenance and renewal. Where service of notices and proceedings can be at the property demised please confirm that this can be amended to include simultaneous services at the Lessees’ solicitors’ offices where the Lessee from time to time is not resident in the UK - such solicitors may be varied by notice in writing to the Landlord from time to time but otherwise will be as previously specified. Has the Lease plan been approved by the Land Registry and if not when will they be lodged for this purpose?

I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £235,500 and identified one round the corner in Clare I like with a park and station in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 51 years on the lease. There is not much else in Clare in this price bracket, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error buying a short lease?

If you need a home loan that many years may be problematic. Discount the price by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the current owner has owned the premises for at least 2 years you may request that they commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. You can add 90 years to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor regarding this matter.

I have been pointed in your direction by a number of estate agents in Clare to get a quote from a property lawyer using your seach tool. What’s the financial inducement for Estate Agents to recommend your site ahead of alternative conveyancing organisations?

We refuse to offer any commission for sending work to this site. We found it would be just too difficult to pay a commission as a client could think, ‘How come the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I getting any benefit too?’ So we decided to step away from that.