We are hoping to buy a 2 bedroom flat in Southsea with a mortgage. We like our Southsea conveyancer, however the lender says she’s not on their "panel". It seems we have no choice but to select one of the bank panel conveyancing practices or continue with our Southsea lawyer as well as pay for one of their panel lawyers to represent them. This feels very unfair; is there anything we can do?

Unfortunately,no. Your mortgage offer is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the lender’s conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower 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 Southsea conveyancing lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel.

My wife and I are refinancing our flat in Southsea with HSBC. We have a son approaching twenty who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose any adults other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the apartment is repossessed. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this form unique to the HSBC conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we purchased 4 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this compromise 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 used Arc property Solicitors several years past for my conveyancing in Southsea. I now require my papers however the law firm has closed. What do I do?

Do contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate 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 Southsea of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously used, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

I'm purchasing a new build house in Southsea with a mortgage from Halifax. The builders would not budge the price so I negotiated 6k of extras instead. The sale representative advised me not disclose to my conveyancer about the side-deal as it may affect my loan with Halifax. Is this normal?.

All lenders require a Disclosure of Incentives Form from the developer 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.

My business partner and I are planning to lease a unit on a shopping parade. Can you recommend lawyers offering fixed costs for non-domestic conveyancing in Southsea for below £1,200?

We are happy to recommend firms who have specialist knowledge of commercial conveyancing in Southsea, including the disposal and acquisition of businesses as well as simply premises. If you are looking to buy or lease a shop, pub, restaurant, office, retail premises or a complete business we can put you in touch with the right firm. As for the costs this will depend on the structure and heads of terms of the deal. Let us have your contact information or telephone us so that we may furnish you with a fixed commercial conveyancing calculation.