My fiance and I are hoping to buy a house in Crawley and are in fact using a Crawley conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Halifax have this morning contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Crawley conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?

If you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for the purchaser's lender. 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Crawley solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

Can I use your services to recommend a Conveyancing solicitor in Crawley even if I’m not buying or selling a house, for example where I wish to acquire a shop in Crawley with a mortgage from Bank of Scotland?

The service is predominantly there to select domestic conveyancing solicitors in Crawley but we have listed towards the end of this page a few Crawley commercial conveyancing firms. You will need to make contact with the firm directly to establish if they can also act for Bank of Scotland

Can I be sure that the Crawley conveyancing solicitor on the Co-operative panel is any good?

When it comes to conveyancing in Crawley obtaining recommendations is a good starting point. Before you go ahead, check if they offer a no sale no fee offer. Also, you often get what you pay for - a firm which quotes more, will often provide a better service than one advertising the lowest fees. We would always suggest that you speak with the lawyer carrying out your transaction.

I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with Lloyds. I assume I don't need a Crawley conveyancer on the Lloyds panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.

If you have finished paying off your Lloyds mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Lloyds mortgage from the register. Lloyds, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:

1. but are not moving to another property
2. where Lloyds has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
3. Lloyds has instructed the Land Registry to do so

After much negotiation I have agreed a price on an apartment in Crawley. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their conveyancing practitioner. I paid an on account payment of £200. A couple of days later, the solicitor called me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the UBS 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 UBS 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 purchased a terraced Edwardian property in Crawley. Conveyancing practitioner acted for me and Santander. I happened to do a free search for it on the Land Registry database and I saw two entries: one for freehold, another for leasehold under the exact same property. Is it worth asking Santander to clarify?

You need to assess the Freehold register you have again and check the Charges Register as there may be mention of a lease. The best way to be sure that you are also the registered owner of the leasehold and freehold title as well is to check (£3). It is not completely unheard of in Crawley and other locations in the country and poses no real issues for owners other than when they mortgage they have to account for both freehold and leasehold interests when dealing with lenders. You can also question the position with your conveyancing solicitor who conducted the work.

I am buying a new build apartment in Crawley. Conveyancing is necessary evil at the best of times but I have never purchased a new build flat before. Can you give me some examples of some of the questions asked in new build legal work.

Set out below are examples of a few leasehold new build enquiries that you can expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in Crawley

Please confirm the Lease plans are surveyor prepared. Has the Lease plan been approved by the Land Registry and if not when will they be lodged for this purpose? There must be mutual enforceability of lessee’s covenants. The Vendor must covenant to keep unsold units in good repair until long leases are granted therefore.