My partner and I are planning to acquire a flat in Suffolk and are in fact using a Suffolk conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. National Westminster Bank have this morning contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Suffolk solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?

When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is normal for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 property lawyer should contact your lender 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 and you may continue to use your own Suffolk solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.

Various online forums that I have come across warn that are the primary reason for delay in Suffolk house deals. Is this right?

The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) released findings of a review by MoveWithUs that conveyancing searches do not figure amongst the most frequent causes of delays during the legal transfer of property. Local searches are unlikely to be the root cause of delay in conveyancing in Suffolk.

I'm converting the mortgage on my current home to a BTL loan with Yorkshire Building Society and intend to use the remaining equity as a down payment on a second property. The location we are talking about is Suffolk. Will your lawyers be able to act for the two banks and link together the conveyances?

Make use of our search tool on this site to be sure that the solicitors are on the appropriate lender panels. Having checked that they are your conveyancer should be able to tie up the two conveyancing matters but you should have a chat with you lawyer and specify your expectations and needs.

In my capacity as executor for the estate of my grandmother I am selling a house in Cardiff but live in Suffolk. My conveyancer (who is 260 miles from meneeds me to execute a statutory declaration prior to completion. Could you suggest a conveyancing lawyer in Suffolk to attest this legal document for me?

Technically speaking you should not need to have the documents witnessed by a conveyancing solicitor. Ordinarily any notary public or solicitor will do regardless of whether they are located in Suffolk

I need to find a mortgage company panel solicitor in Suffolk. Could you help me?

It is not clear why you need a Suffolk panel solicitor but in any event, if you can not find one on our search tool you will need to speak directly to the mortgage company to find out which solicitors in Suffolk are on their panel . If you do find such a firm in Suffolk not listed please direct them to our site to list. At a fee of one pound per month it is not expensive to register on the site