Please help. My Castleford lawyer is assuring me that he has toapply for Castleford conveyancing searches stemming from the fact thatthe firm are on the Nat Westapproved lawyer panel. Is this really necessary?

Unfortunately both you and your lawyer have little choice here. Given that you are taking out a loan with a bank your solicitor has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your property lawyer would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of your lender’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to follow the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook conditions . Even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out Castleford conveyancing searches.

How do I investigate if the solicitor carrying out my conveyancing in Castleford is on the bank’sconveyancing panel? I am looking to avoid the situation of having one lawyer for me and one for The Royal Bank of Scotland thus paying £175.00 in further legal charges.

Feel free to make use of the find a conveyancing panel solicitor tool on this web page. Please choose the mortgage company and type ‘Castleford’ or your location and you will see a number of lawyer located in Castleford or by proximity to you.

I have justbeen informed that Wolstenholmes have closed. They conducted my conveyancing in Castleford for a purchase of a freehold house 18 months ago. How can I be sure that the property is not still registered in the name of the previous owner?

The easiest way to see if the property is in your name, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Castleford conveyancing specialists.

I'm buying a new build house in Castleford benefiting from help to buy. The sellers refused to reduce the price so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The property agent advised me not to tell my conveyancer about this side-deal as it may adversely affect my mortgage with Godiva Mortgages Ltd. 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.

Am I best advised to appoint a Castleford conveyancing solicitor based in the area that I am buying? An old friend can conduct the conveyancing however his firm is located a couple of hundredmiles away.

The primary upside of using a local Castleford conveyancing practice is that you can attend the office to execute documents, hand in your identification documents and pester them where appropriate. Having local Castleford know how is a benefit. That being said nothing is more important than finding someone that will do a good and efficient job. If you know people who instructed your friend and the majority were happy that must outweigh using an unknown Castleford conveyancing solicitor solely due to them being local.