My fiance and I are hoping to acquire a house in Hyde and have appointed a Hyde conveyancing firm. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. Aldermore have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our Hyde lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?

Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is conventional for the purchasers' solicitors 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 Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your mortgage company 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 as you are at liberty to use your preferred Hyde lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

I have 70 years unexpired on my lease and need a lease extension for my flat in Hyde. Conveyancing solicitors on the Chelsea Building Society panel can deal with such extensions right?

Most leasehold conveyancing experts should be able to deal with a lease extension. if you are getting a mortgage then your lender may insist that the lease be extended before competition. Chelsea Building Society have specific requirements as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook in relation to minimum unexpired lease terms. As of 3/9/2025 the requirements read as follows :

I am purchasing my first flat in Hyde with a mortgage from Chelsea Building Society. The developers refused to reduce the amount so I negotiated £7000 of additionals instead. The house builders rep told me not inform my solicitor about this side-deal as it will impact my loan with Chelsea Building Society. 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.

Taking into account that I am about to spend 450k on a terraced house in Hyde I wish to talk to a lawyer about myconveyancing prior to appointing the firm. Can this be arranged?

Absolutely - we would be delighted to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you speaking to the lawyer due to be conducting your conveyancing in Hyde.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - each client is an important person, not a file number. The law firms that we put you in touch with believe that the fees you are calculated and presented to you for your conveyancing in Hyde should be the amount on the final invoice that you are charged.

Do online conveyancing organisations do everything a local Hyde solicitor does or do I still need to use a solicitor for the final stages for my conveyancing in Hyde?

If you instruct an online conveyancer they will undertake all the tasks your Hyde conveyancer would cover.