I am selling my house in Coombe. Does the lawyer have to be required to be on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel in order to deal with the discharge of my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their requirements fairly frequently in recent years.

Do I select a Licenced Conveyancer or Solicitor for conveyancing in Coombe?

There are two types of lawyers who can do conveyancing in Coombe namely licenced conveyancers or solicitors. The two can provide conveyancing services that you need to complete the sale or acquisition of property. Both are required to perform Coombe conveyancing on similar standards and guidelines so you can be safe in the knowledge that your conveyancing will be properly carried out and that all requirements and steps will be correctly adhered to.

I happen to be the only beneficiary of my late father’s estate with all property in now in my sole name, including the house in Coombe. Conveyancing formalities meant that the Land Registry date was in January. I want to move. I understand that there is a Mortgage Lenders six month 'rule', which means that my proprietorship may be regarded the same way as if I'd bought the property in January. Will no one buy the property for half a year?

The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ handbook instructs conveyancers to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." By the strict wording you could be affected by that. many mortgage companies would take a sensible view as this provision is primarily there to capture the purchase and immediately sell or the quick reselling of property.

I have instructed a Coombe solicitor having made sure that they are on the Aldermore conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?

Aldermore will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Aldermore 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. Your property lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Coombe postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Aldermore, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Coombe.

Me and my brother have a 4 bedroom Victorian house in Coombe. Conveyancing solicitor acted for me and Nationwide Building Society. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and there are a couple of entries: one for freehold, the second leasehold under the matching address. Is it worth asking Nationwide Building Society to clarify?

You should review the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Coombe and other areas of 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 check the situation with your conveyancing practitioner who conducted the conveyancing.

I am looking for a leasehold apartment up to £245,000 and found one close by in Coombe I like with amenity areas and transport links nearby, the downside is that it's only got 61 years on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Coombe for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake buying a short lease?

Should you require a mortgage that many years may be a potential deal breaker. Discount the price by the expected lease extension will cost if it has not already been discounted. If the existing owner has owned the property for at least twenty four months you may request that they commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer about this.

My son is just in the process of moving home, he had his mortgage in principle. When the seller agreed the offer on the house we rang the bank to issue the formal offer. We were shocked to learn that mortgage lenders do not accept all conveyancer, they need to be on their approved list, is this right?

Banks normally imposes restrictions either the type or the number of conveyancing firms on their panel. A common example of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that lenders have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any Coombe solicitor on their panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, conveyancing is not their speciality. To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime? Unlikely.