My husband and I are looking to acquire a property in Oxford and are in fact using a Oxford conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Lloyds TSB Bank have this morning contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Oxford lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?

When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your property lawyer should contact your mortgage company 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 are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Oxford lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

We are planning to buy with Norwich and Peterborough Building Society. We have called around locally but cant to find a Oxford conveyancing firm on the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society approved list. Can you assist?

You should make use of the search tool on this page. Please choose the building society and type Oxford or your location and you will be presented with a number of lawyer located in Oxford or by proximity to you.

I used Wolstenholmes several years past for my conveyancing in Oxford. Now, I need the documents but cannot find the solicitor. What do I do?

Do call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracking down your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in Oxford of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously hired, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

What does commercial conveyancing in Oxford cover?

Commercial conveyancing in Oxford incorporates a broad array of services, given by regulated solicitors, relating to business premises. For example, this type of conveyancing can cover the sale or purchase of freehold business premises or, more commonly, the assignment of existing business tenancies or the drafting of new leasing arrangements. Commercial conveyancing solicitors can also offer advice on the sale of business assets, commercial loans and the termination of leases.

I am in need of some leasehold conveyancing in Oxford. Before diving in I require certainty as to the number of years remaining on the lease.

Assuming the lease is registered - and 99.9% are in Oxford - then the leasehold title will always include the basic details of the lease, namely the date; the term; and the original parties. From a conveyancing perspective such details then enable any prospective buyer and lender to confirm that any lease they are looking at is the one relevant to that title. For any other purpose, such as confirming how long the term was granted for and calculating what is left, then the register should be sufficient on it's own.

Oxford Leasehold Conveyancing - Examples of Questions you should consider before buying

How much is the maintenance charge and ground rent on the apartment? Can you tell me if there are any major works anticipated that could add a premium to the maintenance costs? Where a Oxford lease has less than eighty years it will affect the salability of the apartment. It is worth checking with your lender that they are willing to lend given the lease term. Leases with fewer than 80 years remaining means that you will probably have to extend the lease sooner rather than later and it is worth discovering how much this will be. Remember, in most cases you would be be obliged to have owned the premises for a couple of years in order to be entitled to extend the lease.