My fiance and I are hoping to purchase a home in Buckingham and have instructed a Buckingham conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Godiva Mortgages Ltd have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Buckingham conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is standard 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 Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer 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 lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Buckingham lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
My fiance and I intend to remortgage our penthouse in Buckingham with Co-operative. We have a son 18 who lives at home. Our solicitor has asked us to disclose any adults other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the apartment is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this document specific to the Co-operative conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 3 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?
On the face of it your lawyer has done nothing wrong as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to Co-operative. This is solely used to protect Co-operative if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave. It does not impact your son’s right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of Co-operative had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.
I am told that my conveyancing solicitors will need to check that the building insurance when buying a house in Buckingham. My lender is Chelsea Building Society
Chelsea Building Society have specific requirements as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook. As of 28/7/2026, the requirements read as follows :
My wife and I purchasing a detached bungalow in Buckingham. The intention is to convert the garage to a playroom at the property.Will legal work on the property include investigations to ascertain if these works are permitted?
Your solicitor will review the deeds as conveyancing in Buckingham will sometimes identify restrictions in the title deeds which prevent certain works or need the consent of another owner. Some extensions call for local authority planning consent and approval in accordance building regulations. Some locations are designated conservation areas and special planning restrictions apply which often prevent or impact extensions. You should check these issues with a surveyor ahead of any purchase.
is it true that all Buckingham solicitor firms on the Barclays conveyancing panel are overseen by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority?
As a firm of solicitors, in order to be on the Barclays conveyancing panel they would need to be governed by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. Some lenders do list licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such organisation would be regulated by the CLC.
My husband and I have organised a further advance on our home loan from Yorkshire BS as we wish to carry out improvements to our home in Buckingham. Are we obliged to select a local Buckingham solicitor on the Yorkshire BS conveyancing panel to handle the paperwork?
Yorkshire BS would not normally appoint a member of their approved list of lawyers to deal with the formalities. If they do require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Yorkshire BS panel.
What does a local search tell me about the house we're purchasing in Buckingham?
Buckingham conveyancing often commences with the submitting local authority searches directly from your local Authority or via a personal search organisations for instance Searchflow The local search is essential in every Buckingham conveyancing purchase; that is if you don’t want any unpleasant once you have moved into your property. The search should provide data on, amongst other things, details on planning applications relevant to the premises (whether granted or refused), building control history, any enforcement action, restrictions on permitted development, nearby road schemes, contaminated land and radon gas; in all a total of 13 topic areas.
I have been recommended by a couple of local selling agents in Buckingham to get a quote from a conveyancer using your seach tool. Is there a financial incentive for Estate Agents to recommend your services over and above alternative conveyancing organisations?
We refuse to make any referral fee for pointing buyers and sellers to this site. We found it would be just too difficult to pay a commission because home movers will 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.