My partner and I are planning to buy a home in Frognal and have appointed a Frognal conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Halifax have this evening contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Frognal lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?

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

If you had a top tip for selecting a conveyancing solicitor in Frognal what would it be?

We would encourage you not to go for the lowest Frognal conveyancing fees. You really do get what you pay for when it comes to conveyancing solicitors. A cheap quote may mean that the conveyancing solicitor is handling a lot of jobs at one time and you won’t get the quality of service and the attention that you need. It is, however, wise to use a conveyancer who has a fixed fee on a no sale, no fee basis. This way, you know exactly what you’ll have to pay in advance.

We are getting the release of further monies on our home loan from UBS as we intend to carry out a loft conversion to our house in Frognal. Do we need to choose a high street Frognal solicitor on the UBS conveyancing panel to handle the paperwork?

UBS do not ordinarily require a member of their conveyancing panel to handle the formalities. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the UBS list.

My offer on a property in Frognal has been accepted, the sellers do however have an associated purchase. The sellers have offered on a property, but it’s not yet agreed to, and have viewings of other apartments booked. I have chosen a local conveyancing solicitor in Frognal. What should be my next step? When do I get the mortgage application with Barclays going?

It is understandable to have apprehensions where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket prematurely (mortgage application is approx £1k, then survey, Frognal conveyancing search charges, etc). First, you must check that your conveyancing practitioner is on the Barclays conveyancing panel. Concerning the next steps this very much dictated by the circumstances of your transaction, attraction to the property and on the state of the market. During a hot market some purchasers would apply for the mortgage with Barclays and arrange for the valuation and only if it was satisfactory would they request their lawyer to move forward with the conveyancing in Frognal.

I have justfound out that Arc property Solicitors have closed. They carried out my conveyancing in Frognal for a purchase of a leasehold flat 18 months ago. How can I check that my home is in my name in the name of the previous owner?

The quickest way to check if the premises is registered to you, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Frognal conveyancing specialists.

Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold element on a property I have offered on two weeks back in what was supposed to be a simple, no chain conveyancing. Frognal is where the house is located. What do you suggest?

Flying freeholds in Frognal are rare but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Frognal you must be sure that your lawyer goes through the deeds diligently. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Frognal may decide that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold premises.

I was informed by my mortgage company that their panel lawyers work on no sale no fee basis for conveyancing in Frognal. Our purchase aborted and now the solicitors have requested search fees! They say the fees are seperate!

Frognal conveyancing search fees are disbursements not solicitors fees as these are paid to independent parties.