I do hope you can help me. My Meltham conveyancer is assuring me that she is duty bound toapply for Meltham conveyancing searches due to the fact thatthe firm are on the HSBCapproved lawyer panel. Do I not have a choice here?

You have limited options available to you. As you are taking a home loan with a lender your conveyancer has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your solicitor 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 provisions . Even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out Meltham conveyancing searches.

My home in Meltham is up for sale and I have a purchaser. Will my property lawyer need to be required to be on the HSBC conveyancing panel in order to deal with repayment of my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the HSBC 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.

We have agreed to purchase a house in Meltham. An unusual aspect is that the roof has a solar panel. Virgin Money have issued a mortgage offer so presumably this is not a concern to them. Why is my solicitor raising questions about the panel?

As your lender is Virgin Money your lawyer must check the formal instructions contained in Section two of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Virgin Money. The CML Handbook includes minimum conditions for solar panel roof-space leases, and property lawyers are required to report to Virgin Money where a lease does not meet these conditions. The requirements relate to the installation of panels on properties nationwide and is not isolated to Meltham.

I have paid off my mortgage with Nationwide. I assume I don't need a Meltham property lawyer on the Nationwide panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?

If you have finished paying off your Nationwide 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 Nationwide mortgage from the register. Nationwide, 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 Nationwide has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
3. Nationwide has instructed the Land Registry to do so

After much negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Meltham. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their conveyancing practitioner. I paid an on account payment of £175. Not long after, the conveyancing practitioner called me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Lloyds 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 Lloyds 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.

My husband and I are a couple of weeks into a freehold purchase having been directed to conveyancers by the local agent to do our conveyancing in Meltham. I am not happy. Could you help me find new conveyancers?

They would need to be very poor to suggest changing them. Has the mortgage been generated? In the event that it has you will need to make them aware of the new contact details and get the offer are issued to the new lawyers. The conveyancer should be on the banks approved list to avoid escalating costs and delays. That should be your first question of the new lawyers. Our find a solicitor tool should assist you in finding a bank approved lawyer for your conveyancing in Meltham

My husband and I are buying a three bedroom flatin Meltham with a mortgage from a bank. We like our lawyer in Meltham yet our lender inform us now that he's not approved on their "panel". Apparently we need to choose one of the our bank panel firms or stay with our Meltham conveyancer and pay for one of their panel ones to represent them. We feel as though this is unjust; Can we not simply insist that our mortgage company use our Meltham lawyer?

Unfortunately,no. The bank home loan issued is subject to conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the mortgage company's conveyancing panel. in the past, most lenders had open panels, including many conveyancing solicitors in Meltham : a mortgagee could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. Another option that might be available is for your solicitors to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for your lender.