My conveyancer has identified a defect with the lease for the property we are purchasing in St Anns. The seller’s lawyers have offered title insurance as a solution. We are content with insurance and will pay for it. Our conveyancing practitioner has advised that he must be satisfied that the mortgage company is happy with this solution. Are we the client or is the lender?
The short answer to your last question is that, notwithstanding the risk of a conflict of interest, you and the bank are the client. Your solicitor must comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook conditions require your lawyer to disclose issues such as defects with the lease so that the bank can be afforded the opportunity to check with their valuer as to the extent that the value of the property is affected. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your conveyancing practitioner will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.
This question may be naive but I am wet behind the ears as FTB of a ground floor flat in St Anns. Do I collect the keys to the premises on completion from my lawyer? If so, I will instruct a local conveyancing solicitor in St Anns?
There is no need to visit the lawyers office on the day of completion. Conveyancing lawyers for you will electronically transfer the completion advance to the vendor’s lawyers, and once they have received this, you will be called to pick up the keys from the Estate Agents and move into your new home. This tends to happen between 1 and 3pm.
I had an offer accepted on a house in St Anns on 7/9/2026, valuation was booked five days later, all came back fine. Conveyancer retained, so the only thing outstanding was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to Aldermore and chasing them on my offer, I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the Aldermore conveyancing panel. Can the lender hold off the offer?
A lender would not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Aldermore to deal with your lawyer's application to be on the Aldermore conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitor will be accepted.
I have finally had an offer on a maisonette in St Anns accepted, the sellers do nevertheless have a dependent purchase. The owners have placed an offer on a flat, however it’s not yet agreed to, and have viewings of other properties in the pipeline. I have selected a high street conveyancing solicitor in St Anns. What do I do now? At what point should I apply for the mortgage with HSBC?
It is normal to have concerns where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to incur costs prematurely (mortgage application is in the region of one thousand pounds, then valuation, St Anns conveyancing search fees, etc). The first thing to do is check that your conveyancer is on the HSBC approved list. As to the next steps this very much depends on the circumstances of your case, attraction to the property and on the state of the market. In a hot market the majority of home buyers would apply for a home loan with HSBC and pay for the valuation and only if it was satisfactory would they request their lawyer to move forward with searches.
Will our lawyer be raising questions about flooding as part of the conveyancing in St Anns.
Flooding is a growing risk for lawyers specialising in conveyancing in St Anns. Plenty of people will acquire a property in St Anns, fully aware that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, aside from the physical damage, if a house is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to get a mortgage, adequate insurance cover, or sell the property. Steps can be carried out as part of the conveyancing process to forewarn the buyer.
Lawyers are not qualified to give advice on flood risk, however there are a number of searches that can be undertaken by the purchaser or on a buyer’s behalf which will figure out the risks in St Anns. The standard information supplied to a buyer’s lawyer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) incorporates a usual question of the owner to discover if the premises has suffered from flooding. If flooding has previously occurred which is not notified by the vendor, then a buyer could bring a legal claim for losses stemming from an incorrect answer. The purchaser’s solicitors should also order an environmental search. This should higlight whether there is any known flood risk. If so, more detailed inquiries will need to be made.
I used Stirling Law a few years ago for my conveyancing in St Anns. Now, I need my files however the law firm is no longer operating. What do I do?
You should contact the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to help locate your conveyancing files. They can be contacted on please contact on 0870 606 2555. Alternatively, you should use their online form to make an enquiry. You will need to provide the SRA with as much information as possible to assist their search, including the name and address in St Anns of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously retained, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.
Taking into account that I will soon part with 450k on a terraced house in St Anns I would like to have a conversation with the solicitor about mytransaction before instructing the firm. Can this be arranged?
This is something that we encourage - it is our preference to talk to you we do not take any clients on without you first talking to the lawyer due to be conducting your conveyancing in St Anns.There is no ‘factory style conveyancing’ - each client is an important individual, not a matter reference. The solicitors that we put you in touch with believe that the fees you are provided with for your conveyancing in St Anns should be the figure that you end up paying.
Our conveyancer in St Anns has identified a a legal deficiency with the lease for the apartment we are purchasing in St Anns. The seller’s lawyers have offered defective title insurance as a workaround. We are happy with insurance and will pay for it. Our solicitor has advised that as he is on the bank conveyancing panel he must ensure that the lender is happy with this solution. Who is the client here, us or the bank?
Just because you have a mortgage offer from the mortgage company does not mean to say that the property will be meet their requirements for the purposes of a mortgage. Your St Anns conveyancing lawyer has to ensure that the lease has to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook Requirements. You and the lender are the client. The appropriate lender requirements have to be complied with by the mortgage company conveyancing panel who has to balance acting for you and the lender