My husband and I are looking to buy a property in North Shields and are in fact using a North Shields conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. The Royal Bank of Scotland have this evening contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our North Shields lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?

When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred North Shields lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

I have Fifty Six years left on my lease and need a lease extension for my flat in North Shields. Conveyancing solicitors on the Accord Mortgages panel can deal with such extensions right?

Most leasehold conveyancing experts should be able to deal with a lease extension. if you are securing a mortgage then your lender may insist that the lease be extended before competition. Accord Mortgages have specific requirements as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook in relation to minimum unexpired lease terms. As of 25/1/2025 the requirements read as follows :

My husband and I have arranged the release of further funds on our mortgage from Nationwide as we intend to conduct a loft conversion to our property in North Shields. Do we need to appoint a local North Shields solicitor on the Nationwide conveyancing panel to deal with the legals?

Nationwide don't usually appoint firms on their approved list of lawyers to deal with the formalities. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Nationwide list.

I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with Principality. I assume I don't need a North Shields property lawyer on the Principality panel to discharge the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?

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

After much negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in North Shields. My financial adviser recommended their conveyancers. I paid an advanced payment of £175. Not long after, the solicitor called me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the TSB 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 TSB 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 got the keys to my apartment on 13 January and the transaction details are still not on the land registry website. Should I be concerned? My conveyancing solicitor in North Shields advises it should be concluded in less than a month. Are properties in North Shields particularly slow to register?

There is nothing unique when it comes to conveyancing in North Shields registration formalities. As opposed to being determined by geographic area, timeframes can vary depending on the party submitting the application, whether there are errors and if the Land registry must send notices to any 3rd parties. At present in the region of 80% of such applications are completed within 12 days but some can be subject to longer hold-ups. Registration takes place after the purchaser has moved in to the premises thus 'speed' is not usually primary concern but where it is urgent that the the registration takes place urgently then you or your lawyers must communicate with the Registry to express the reasoning for the application to be prioritised.

I'm buying my first flat in North Shields with a loan from Bank of Scotland. The builders refused to reduce the price so I negotiated 6k of fixtures and fittings instead. The estate agent advised me not disclose to my lawyer about the extras as it will impact my mortgage with Bank of Scotland. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

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.