My wife and I are looking to purchase a flat in Garstang and are in fact using a Garstang conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Barnsley Building Society have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Garstang solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?

Where you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is usual 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 property lawyer 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 Garstang solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

Our nephew is in the process of securing a house that has just been built in Garstang with a mortgage from Leeds Building Society. His lawyer has advised him of a delay in receiving the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. This document is news to me - what is it and who needs sight of it?

The document is intended to provide information to the main parties engaged in the transaction. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the surveyor when requested. The developer will be required to start the process by downloading the form and completing it. The form will therefore need to be available for the valuer at the time of his or her site visit. The form should be sent to the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.

We expect to receive a DIP from Barclays this week so we know how much we could potentially offer as otherwise we are dependent on web based calculators (which aren't taking into account credit checks etc). Do Barclays recommend any Garstang solicitors on the Barclays conveyancing panel, or is it better to find our own lawyer?

You will need to appoint Garstang solicitors independently although you'll need to choose one on the Barclays conveyancing panel. The solicitor represents both you and Barclays through the process.

My fiancee and I are in the process of viewing apartments in Garstang and I am now considering a potential offer. Is it premature to have a solicitor in place? I will be getting a home loan with Yorkshire BS.

You should start obtaining conveyancing estimates from solicitors ASAP. Once you decide who you want to use and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and forward their details on to the EA. As you are taking out a mortgage with Yorkshire BS, make sure you remember to check that your lawyer is on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel.

Completion of my remortgage has taken place for my property in Garstang. Conveyancing was satisfactory but I would like to complain about the lender. How do I make a complaint?

Almost all banks and building societies have complaints procedures. Your first port of call should be one of the lender’s branches or the Customer Services Team at head office. We understand that complaints to a lender are sorted out very quickly. If you feel the matter is not resolved you can write to Financial Ombudsman Service who will take matters further.

I am purchasing a house and the solicitor has mentioned Chancel Repair to which the property may be obligated to contribute to given it’s proximity to the area of such a church. He has mentioned insurance. Is this strictly appropriate for conveyancing in Garstang

Unless a prior purchase of the property took place post 12 October 2013 you can take it that solicitors carrying out conveyancing in Garstang to remain encouraging a chancel search and or chancel repair liability insurance.

I’m about to sell my 2 bed apartment in Garstang.Conveyancing is yet to be initiated however I have recently received a quarterly maintenance charge demand – Do I pay up?

The sensible thing to do is pay the maintenance contribution as you normally would given that all rents and maintenance payments should be allottedas part of the financial calculations for completion monies, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the subsequent invoice date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process