My wife and I are looking to acquire a house in Queensbury and are in fact using a Queensbury conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Barnsley Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Queensbury conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
Where you are buying a property needing a mortgage it is usual for the purchasers' solicitors 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 Quality 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 don't have to instruct a firm on the bank's conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Queensbury lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
Me and my partner are buying a flat in Queensbury. I might seem paranoid but how we can trust a solicitor? At some point we will need to send funds into their account. What protection do we have from them run away with our money?
Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.
I have today made my last payment due on my mortgage with Clydesdale. I assume I don't need a Queensbury solicitor on the Clydesdale panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm.
If you have finished paying off your Clydesdale mortgage, they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Clydesdale mortgage from the register. Clydesdale, and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
- but are not moving to another property
- where Clydesdale has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
- Clydesdale has instructed the Land Registry to do so
I had an offer accepted on a property in Queensbury on 15/12/2025, valuation was booked 4 days after, all came back fine. Conveyancer instructed, so the only thing outstanding was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to HSBC and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the HSBC conveyancing panel. Can the lender hold off the offer?
Mortgage companies tend not to not issue an offer until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for HSBC to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the HSBC conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
The deeds to our house are lost. The conveyancers who did the conveyancing in Queensbury 10 years ago are no longer around. What are my next steps?
Gone are the days when you need to hold title deeds to establish that you own the land or premises, given that the Land Registry hold details of all registered land or property electronically.
Am I right to be concerned about estate agents that I am dealing with are encouraging me to use a nationwide conveyancing firm rather than a High Street Queensbury conveyancing firm?
As is the case with lots of service providers, often referrals from connections can be worth their weight in gold. Nevertheless there are numerous players in a conveyancing transaction; estate agents, mortgage brokers and lenders might all recommend solicitors to choose. On occasion these lawyers might be known to one of the organisations as being good in their field, but sometimes there might be a commercial relationship behind the endorsement. You have the discretion to choose your preferred conveyancer. Don't forget that most lenders have an approved list of lawyers you must use for the lender related work in your house move.
My cousin has urged me to use his conveyancing solicitors in Queensbury. Do I follow his guidance?
Much as we are happy to recommend a Queensbury conveyancing lawyer the ideal way to find a conveyancing solicitor is to have referrals from friends or relatives who have actually previously instructed the firm that you are contemplating using.
I have just appointed agents to market my basement flat in Queensbury. Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed, however I have just had a yearly service charge invoice – what should I do?
Your conveyancing lawyer is likely to suggest that you should discharge the service charge as you normally would given that all rents and service invoices will be apportioned on completion, so you should recover the relevant percentage by the purchaser 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. This will smooth the conveyancing process.
I inherited a first floor flat in Queensbury. Given that I can not reach agreement with the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal determine the sum due for a lease extension?
if there is a missing freeholder or where there is dispute about what the lease extension should cost, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 it is possible to make an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal to make a decision on the premium.
An example of a Lease Extension case for a Queensbury flat is 20 Orchard Court Stonegrove in June 2009. The tribunal decided that a premium of £11,040 should be payable for the new lease This case was in relation to 1 flat. The number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 71.55 years.