My partner and I are looking to buy a house in Roade and are in fact using a Roade conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Platform Home Loans Ltd have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Roade conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?

When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is standard 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 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 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 Roade lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.

My husband and I swapping mortgage lender for our apartment in Roade with HSBC. We have a son approaching twenty who lives with us. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this form unique to the HSBC conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we bought 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his rights to inherit the property?

First, rest assured that your HSBC conveyancing panel solicitor is doing the right thing as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to HSBC. This is solely used to protect HSBC if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave. It does not impact your son’s right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of HSBC had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.

I require expedited conveyancing in Roade as I am under pressure to exchange contracts within 3 weeks. A mortgage is not required. Is it possible to decline from having conveyancing searches to save money and time?

If.Given you are are a cash purchaser you are at liberty not to have searches conducted although no solicitor would advise that you don't. Drawing on years of experience of conveyancing in Roade the following are instances of what can be revealed and adversely affect future saleability: Refused Planning Applications, Overdue Charges, Overdue Grants, Road Schemes,...

I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold issue on a property I have offered on a fortnight ago in what was supposed to be a straight forward, chain free conveyancing. Roade is the location of the property. Can you offer any guidance?

Flying freeholds in Roade are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even though you don't necessarily need a conveyancing solicitor in Roade you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds diligently. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Roade may decide that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold property.

Are the Roade conveyancing lawyers identified as being on the mortgage company conveyancing panel, together with their details provided by the mortgage company?

Roade firms and firms conducting conveyancing in Roade themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the mortgage company conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from the bank directly.