My fiance and I are hoping to acquire a flat in St James's and are in fact using a St James's conveyancing practice. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Barnsley Building Society have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our St James's solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?

Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is standard for the purchasers' lawyers to also represent 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 Accreditation Scheme. Your property lawyer 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 solicitors to act. 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 St James's lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

I appreciate that there are debates on Chancel Insurance on online forums. Am I compelled to have this when acquiring a residence in St James's? or Apparently there is a law dating back centuries that means some homeowners residing in a parish church boundary will be compelled to pay for maintenance to the chancel in proximity to the church. Is this suitable for conveyancing in St James's?

Unless a prior acquisition of the premises completed post 12 October 2013 you may take it that solicitors handling conveyancing in St James's to remain encouraging a chancel search and or insurance against a claim.

Just had an offer accepted on a new build apartment in St James's. 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 conveyancing.

Set out below are examples of a selection of leasehold new build questions that you can expect your new-build leasehold conveyancing in St James's

Please supply a car parking plan. Will control of the Management Company (if any) be handed over to purchasers on completion of the last sale or earlier? The Lease must contain a provision on behalf of the Vendor to pay the service charges in respect of unoccupied units in order to ensure that all services can be provided. Please provide evidence that the form of Lease proposed has been approved by the Land Registry. Will the freehold then be transferred for a nominal consideration (not exceeding £100) to the Management Company?

I am looking for a flat up to £235,500 and found one near me in St James's I like with amenity areas and transport links nearby, the downside is that it only has 51 remaining years left on the lease. There is not much else in St James's for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a lease with such few years left?

If you need a mortgage that many years will be an issue. Discount the offer by the expected lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the existing owner has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you may request that they commence the lease extension formalities and pass it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease with a zero ground rent applied. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor about this matter.

I need to retain a conveyancing solicitor for residential conveyancing in St James's. I happened to discover a site which appears to be the ideal answer If it is possible to get all this stuff done via phone that would be ideal. Do I need to be wary? What are the potential pitfalls?

As usual with these online conveyancers you need to read ALL the small print - did you notice the extra charge for dealing with the mortgage?