Two weeks ago we had a mortgage agreed in principle with Lloyds. Roundhay conveyancing practitioners have been selected. How long does it take for Lloyds to send the offer to the lawyer?

There is no definitive answer here. Have Lloyds conducted the survey? Have you advised Lloyds as to your lawyers' details and checked that your lawyers are on the Lloyds conveyancing panel? It is not unusual for a mortgage offer to take a month to come through.

I'm in the process of viewing houses in Roundhay and I am now considering a potential offer. Should I already have a conveyancer in place at this stage? I will be getting a home loan with Barclays.

You should start requesting conveyancing estimates from solicitors ASAP. After you have chosen your lawyer and once your offer is accepted you can instruct them to work for you and pass their contact information on to the EA. Given that you are seeking a mortgage with Barclays, ask your prospective lawyers if they are on the Barclays conveyancing panel otherwise they can't do the mortgage legal work.

After much negotiation I have agreed a price on a house in Roundhay. My financial adviser suggested a property lawyer. I paid an upfront payment of £200. Shortly after, the conveyancing practitioner called me embarrassingly acknowledging that they were not on the Skipton 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 Skipton 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 am selling our house in Roundhay and according to the buyers it appears that there is a possibility that the property was constructed land that was not decontaminated. A high street Roundhay lawyer would know that there is no such problem. For the life of me I don't know why the purchasers are using a web based conveyancing outfit rather than a conveyancing solicitor in Roundhay. We have lived in Roundhay for many years we know of no issue. Do we contact our local Authority to obtain clarification that there is no issue.

It would appear that you have a conveyancing solicitor already. What do they say? You must check with your lawyer before you do anything. It is very possible that once the local authority has been informed of a potential issue it cannot be insured against (a bit like being diagnosed with a serious illness and then taking out health insurance to cover that same ailment)

It has been four months since my purchase conveyancing in Roundhay completed. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £175,000 when infact I paid £160,000. Why the discrepancy?

The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the residence from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.

Taking into account that I am about to part with £400,000 on 3 bedroom house in Roundhay I would like to talk to a solicitor concerning thehouse move prior to appointing the firm. Is this something that you can arrange?

This is something that we recommend - it is our preference to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you first talking to the conveyancer due to be conducting your property ownership legalities in Roundhay.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - each client is unique person, not a case reference. The practices that we put you in touch with believe that the fees you are quoted for residential conveyancing in Roundhay should be the amount on the final invoice that you are charged.

I have instructed a Roundhay conveyancing solicitor for our house purchase (first time buyers) and have picked up in the Ts and Cs that they are not governed by the FCA. Need I be worried or is that usually the case with conveyancing practitioner?

We can't see why they should be. Most solicitor don't lend money. They will be governed by the SRA, who have specific stipulations in place on amounts sitting on client account.