We are only a couple days away from an exchange on a house in Coney Hall and my mum and dad have sent the exchange deposit to my property lawyer. I am now advised that as the deposit has not come from me my conveyancer needs to make a notification to my lender. Apparently, in also acting for the lender he must advise them that the balance of the purchase price is not just from me. I disclosed to the mortgage company about my parents' contribution when I applied for the home loan, so is it really appropriate for this now to hold matters up?

The property lawyer is legally required to clarify with mortgage company to ensure that they are aware that the balance of the purchase price is not from your own resources. Your solicitor can only report this to your lender if you agree, failing which, your lawyer must cease to continue acting.

I am told that my conveyancing solicitors will need to check that the building insurance for my purchase of a house in Coney Hall. My lender is Virgin

Virgin have specific requirements as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook. As of 29/1/2025, the requirements read as follows :

I'm the single recipient of my late father’s will and I have everything in my name alone, including the house in Coney Hall. Conveyancing formalities meant that the Land Registry date was in December. I now wish to sell up. I do know about the Mortgage Lenders 6 month 'rule', which means that my property ownership could be treated the same way as if I'd bought the property in December. Is the property unsalable for six months?

The CML handbook mandates conveyancers to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." Technically you might be impacted by that. How sensible a view lenders take of it, depend on the bank as this requirement is principally there to pick up on subsales or the flipping of properties.

Is it the case that all Coney Hall solicitor firms on the HSBC conveyancing panel are overseen by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority?

As solicitors, in order to be on the HSBC approved list of solicitors they would need to be governed by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. Some mortgage companies do permit licenced conveyancers on their panel and in that case the firms would be regulated by the CLC.

Having read lots of mortgage guides, I note that they all recommend that you should get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local Coney Hall solicitor - who is on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. is that correct?

Leeds Building Society will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Leeds Building Society will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. You may wish to consider appointing your own Coney Hall surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller.

Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to our house are lost. The lawyers who did the conveyancing in Coney Hall 4 years ago are no longer around. What do I do?

Nowadays there are duplicates made of almost everything, and your conveyancer should be aware precisely where to locate all the suitable paperwork so you may buy or dispose of your property without any difficulty. Where copies are not available, your solicitor may be able to put in place insurance or indemnities against future claims on your property.

The estate agent has sent us the confirmation of our purchase of a new build flat in Coney Hall. Conveyancing is a frightening process 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.

Here is a sample of a few leasehold new build questions that you may expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Coney Hall

The Landlord must covenant to assume the management if the Management Company goes into liquidation or otherwise defaults in running the management scheme. The Lease must contain a provision on behalf of the Vendor to pay the service charges in respect of unoccupied units in order to ensure that all services can be provided. Will control of the Management Company (if any) be handed over to purchasers on completion of the last sale or earlier? Where there is an Undertaking being granted there is the risk of forfeiture of the Headlease subject to relief if one or more of the Underlessees are willing to accept the original Head Lessee’s obligations as otherwise relief will be denied to the Underlessees. The only alternatives are the Head Lessor agreeing not to forfeit the Headlease or the Head Lessee guaranteeing to the Underlessees that it will not be in breach of the Headlease. Please confirm the Lease plans are surveyor prepared.