My partner and I are looking to purchase a property in Longhope and have appointed a Longhope conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Leeds Building Society have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Longhope conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
Where you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' lawyers to also act for 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 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 Longhope solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
I have 71 years left on my lease and require a lease extension for my flat in Longhope. Conveyancing solicitors on the Virgin panel can deal with such extensions correct?
Most leasehold conveyancing experts should be able to deal with a lease extension. if you are securing a mortgage then your lender may insist that the lease be extended before competition. Virgin have specific requirements as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook in relation to minimum unexpired lease terms. As of 2/5/2026 the requirements read as follows :
I'm the single beneficiary of my late grandmother’s will with all property in now in my sole name, including the my former home in Longhope. The Longhope property was put into my name in April. I plan to dispose of the house. I do know about the CML six month 'rule', which means that my property ownership will be treated the same way as if I'd bought the property in April. Is the property unsalable for six months?
The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ handbook requires conveyancers to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." By the strict wording you could be impacted by that. many mortgage companies would take a sensible view as this requirement is principally there to identify subsales or the flipping of properties.
I currently have a mortgage with RBS for my property in Longhope. Conveyancing has been completed some time ago. In the event that I decide to rent out the flat and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform RBS?
You must advise RBS before letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of RBS’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will allow you to rent out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact RBS directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a RBS conveyancing panel solicitor.
Our offer on a house in Longhope has been accepted, the sellers do however have a connected purchase. The vendors have placed an offer on on an apartment, but it’s not yet tied up, and have viewings of other properties in the pipeline. I have chosen a nearby conveyancing solicitor in Longhope. What do I do now? When should I get the mortgage application with Yorkshire BS going?
It is usual to have apprehensions where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket prematurely (home loan application is in the region of one thousand pounds, then valuation, Longhope conveyancing search charges, etc). First, you must check that your solicitor is on the Yorkshire BS approved list. Regarding the next steps this very much depends on the specifics of your transaction, motivation for the property and on the state of the market. In a hot market some buyers would apply for the mortgage with Yorkshire BS and pay for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they pay their lawyer to move forward with the conveyancing in Longhope.
I'm buying a new build house in Longhope with a mortgage from Godiva Mortgages Ltd. The sellers would not move on the amount so I negotiated 6k of additionals instead. The sale representative advised me not reveal to my lawyer about the deal as it could impact my loan with the bank. 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 part with hundreds of thousands of pounds on a property in Longhope I would like to talk to a conveyancer concerning thehouse move ahead of appointing the firm. Is this something that you can arrange?
We could not agree more - it is our preference to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you liaising with the solicitor who will be conducting your conveyancing in Longhope.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - each client is an important individual, not a file number. The solicitors that we put you in touch with believe that the fees you are provided with for residential conveyancing in Longhope should be the amount on the final invoice that you end up paying.
I bought a flat in Longhope last 31/1/2025 and to date it is still not registered with the Land Registry. It was part of a new estate and my conveyancer told me that it can take 12 months to register. I have spoken with HM Land Registry directly and they have informed me the original application was cancelled due to failure to reply to requisitions. Do I need to be concerned?
Contact your lawyer - Where you are unsatisfied with the responses, look up their firm’s complaints protocol and amplify your problem to a Partner. Registrations for Longhope conveyancing are not known to be significantly delayed.