My partner and I are planning to purchase a house in Frizington and are in fact using a Frizington conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Norwich and Peterborough Building Society have this evening contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our Frizington lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?

Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your bank and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the bank's conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own Frizington solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

Last May we completed a house move in Frizington. We have since encountered a number of problems with the house which we believe were omitted in the conveyancing searches. Is there anything we can do? Can you clarify the nature of searches that should have been ordered as part of conveyancing in Frizington?

It is not clear from the question as what problems have arisen and if they are specific to conveyancing in Frizington. Conveyancing searches and due diligence undertaken as part of the buying process are designed to help avoid problems. As part of the legal transfer of property, a seller fills in a questionnaire called a Seller’s Property Information Form. answers is inaccurate, then you may have a claim against the owner for any losses that you have suffered. The survey should have identified any problems with the structure of the property. Assuming a detailed survey was carried out and the issues were not identified, you may have a claim against the surveyor. However, if you did not have a full survey, you may be responsible for fixing any defects that have now been noted. We would always encourage buyers to take every possible step to ensure they are completely aware of the condition of a property before purchase regardless of whether they are buying in Frizington.

five months have gone by since my purchase conveyancing in Frizington completed. I have checked the Land Registry site which shows that I paid £175,000 when infact I paid £180,000. 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 residence 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.

I was advised by two or three local property agents in Frizington to find a solicitor on your site. What’s the financial upside for Estate Agents to offer your site over and above alternative conveyancing organisations?

We refuse to make any commission for sending work in our direction. We thought it would be too underhand a fee as members of the public would think, ‘Why is the agent getting a kickback? Why aren’t I getting any benefit too?’ We would prefer to grow our business on genuine recommendations.

There are a number of houses in Frizington on private roads. I am purchasing such a house. Are there any benefits to purchasing a residence on a privately owned road?

Frizington conveyancing solicitors are familiar with transacting homeson unadopted roads. The solicitor will review the title to identify any rights or liabilities. It is possible that there is a management company (wholly owned by residents) that proprietors make annual payments to maintain the road. Where one exists, the road will likely be maintained and look better than publicly adopted.