I do hope you can help me. My Hackney Marshes lawyer is informing me me that he is legally obliged toapply for Hackney Marshes conveyancing searches becausethe firm are on the HSBCapproved lawyer panel. These Hackney Marshes checks cost a lot of money can this be avoided?

You have limited options available to you. Given that you are taking out a loan with a mortgage company your property lawyer has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your property lawyer would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of your lender’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to follow the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook specifications . Even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out Hackney Marshes conveyancing searches.

We see that you have a post code search directory identifying solicitors on the Skipton conveyancing panel. Do firms pay you a commission if I retain them for our own conveyancing in Hackney Marshes?

We are a listing service only for law firms wishing to communicate if they are on the Skipton conveyancing panel or other lender panels. We do not charge referral fees to any conveyancer that you subsequently appoint for your conveyancing in Hackney Marshes.

This question may be naive but I am unexperienced as FTB of a two bedroom flat in Hackney Marshes. Do I receive the keys to the property on completion from my lawyer? If this is the case, I will use a High Street conveyancing solicitor in Hackney Marshes?

On the day of completion you do not need to attend the conveyancers office in Hackney Marshes. Conveyancing lawyers for you will transfer the completion advance to the seller's solicitors, and once they have received this, you should be invited to pick up the keys from the selling Agents and move into your new home. This tends to happen early afternoon.

I have paid off my mortgage with Barclays. I assume I don't need a Hackney Marshes lawyer on the Barclays panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.

If you have finished paying off your Barclays mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Barclays mortgage from the register. Barclays, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:

1. but are not moving to another property
2. where Barclays has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
3. Barclays has instructed the Land Registry to do so

I recently had an offer accepted on a house in Hackney Marshes. My mortgage broker suggested a lawyer. I paid an advanced payment of £150. Soon after, the solicitor contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Principality conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?

You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Principality panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.

I have recentlybeen informed that Stirling Law have been shut down. They carried out my conveyancing in Hackney Marshes for a purchase of a leasehold flat 10 months ago. How can I check that the property is registered correctly in the name of the previous owner?

The quickest way to check if the property 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 Hackney Marshes conveyancing specialists.

I'm purchasing a new build house in Hackney Marshes with the aid of help to buy. The builders refused to budge the price so I negotiated £7000 of extras instead. The sale representative suggested that I not disclose to my solicitor about this extras as it will adversely affect my loan with The Mortgage Works. Is this normal?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the builder of any new build, converted or renovated property, It is available online from the Lenders’ Handbook page on the CML website. CML form is completed and handed to the lender's surveyor when the inspection is done.

Lenders have different policies on incentives. Some accept none at all, cash or physical, while others will accept cash incentives up to 5%.

Hard to understand why the representative of a builder would be suggesting you withold information from a solicitor when all this will be clearly visible on forms the builder has to supply to its solicitor, the buyer's solicitor and the surveyor.