My husband and I are acquiring a new build apartment in Beddgelert and my solicitor is informing me that she has to the mortgage company to reveal incentives from the seller. The Estate Agents are hassling me to exchange contracts and my preference is not to prolong matters. is my lawyer playing by the book?

You should not exchange unless you have been advised to do so by your lawyer. A precondition to being on a bank panel is to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions. The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.

We note that you have a post code search directory identifying firms on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel. Do firms pay you a commission if I appoint them for our own conveyancing in Beddgelert?

We are a listing service only for law firms wishing to communicate if they are on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel or other lender panels. We do not charge referral fees to any conveyancer that you subsequently appoint for your conveyancing in Beddgelert.

My fiance and I are buying a purpose built flat in Beddgelert with a mortgage from Lloyds TSB Bank.We have a Beddgelert conveyancing practitioner but Lloyds TSB Bank informed us he's not listed on their "panel". we are left little option but to use a Lloyds TSB Bank panel lawyer or retain our local solicitor and fork out for one of their panel ones to represent them. This seems very unfair; is there anything we can do?

No, not really. The loan issued to you is subject to its various provisions, one of which will be that lawyers needs to be on the Lloyds TSB Bank solicitor panel. in the past, most lenders had large numbers of solicitors on their panels: a borrower could find 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 lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for Lloyds TSB Bank

3 months have gone by following my purchase conveyancing in Beddgelert took place. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £150,000 when infact I paid £170,000. 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 asset 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.

Me and my wife are soon to complete buying a house in Beddgelert but as a consequence of wreckage from the recent storms I have agreed reparation from the vendor of £3k taking the form of a deduction in the price. This was going to be addressed as part of the conveyancing process but the mortgage company will not agree to this. Should they have been approached?

Any solicitor being on a bank approved list is obliged to disclose to the mortgage company of any variations to the sale amount. If you did not allow your lawyer to disclose the reduction to your lender then they would have to disinstructing themselves from representing you and the lender.