It has come to my attention via my IFA that my Sacriston the law firm I have appointed is not on the lender Solicitor panel. What can I do to be certain whether this is indeed the case?

Your first step should be to contact your Sacriston conveyancer. You lawyer should inform you of the situation. If they are not on the panel they may recommend you to a Sacriston conveyancing practice that is on the conveyancing panel for your mortgage company.

The Sacriston conveyancing lawyers that just started acting on my purchase in Sacriston have without warning shut down. I only went with them because I had to have a firm on the Aldermore conveyancing panel and my family Sacriston lawyer was not. I paid them money in advance. What do I do now?

Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then let them know straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Aldermore conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers should be in a position to assist.

My bid for a property was accepted at auction in Sacriston. Conveyancing is necessary. What happens now?

Having legally bound yourself to purchase you now have to choose a conveyancing solicitor as a matter of urgency as you will have a pending a fixed date to complete the deal. An auction property should have a bespoke auction set of papers. This will likely include most,if not all of the paperwork that your solicitor requires. If you have purchased leasehold premises the conveyancing papers may provide a copy of the lease, management information and a sellers leasehold information form and other conveyancing paperwork relating to a leasehold property. You need to give this to the lawyer instructed by you ASAP. You also need to ensure that your finances are in place to complete on the on the contractual date .

We had chosen conveyancing lawyers locally in Sacriston on the TSB solicitor approved list. They are now charging me a separate fee for the legal aspects of the TSB mortgage. Is this an additional conveyancing fee specified by TSB?

As unfair as it may seem, as long as it’s in their Terms and Conditions or Quote then yes your conveyancer can levy a fee for this. The fee is not dictated by TSB but by your Sacriston conveyancing practitioner. Plenty of firms on the TSB panel will levy an ‘acting for lender’ fee but some practices incorporate it on their overall fee.

I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment in Sacriston. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their property lawyer. I paid an on account payment of £200. A couple of days later, the solicitor called me to say that they were not on the Virgin Money 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 Virgin Money 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 am purchasing a new build house in Sacriston with a loan from Barclays . The developers would not reduce the price so I negotiated five thousand pounds worth of additionals instead. The house builders rep advised me not reveal to my solicitor about this extras as it will impact my loan with the lender. 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.

Estate agents have just been given the go-ahead to market my 2 bed flat in Sacriston. Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed, however I have recently received a quarterly maintenance charge demand – should I leave it to the buyer to sort out?

The sensible thing to do is discharge the service charge as you normally would because all ground rent and service payments should be apportioned as part of the financial calculations for completion monies, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer until the service charges have been paid and are up to date, so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. Having a clear account will assist your cause and will leave you no worse off financially.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Sacriston - A selection of Questions you should consider before Purchasing

How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their maintenance charge payments? What restrictions are there in the Sacriston Lease? How much is the annual maintenance fee and ground rent?