My husband and I are hoping to buy a property in Bowes Park and have appointed a Bowes Park conveyancing firm. Within the past 48 hours our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. The Mortgage Works have this afternoon contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our Bowes Park lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
When purchasing a property with mortgage finance it is standard 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 Quality Scheme. Your property lawyer should contact your lender 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 and you may continue to use your own Bowes Park solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.
Will my conveyancing lawyers need to check that the building insurance when buying a house in Bowes Park. My lender is Accord Mortgages
Accord Mortgages have specific requirements as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook. As of 10/1/2026, the requirements read as follows :
What can a local search tell me about the house my wife and I buying in Bowes Park?
Bowes Park conveyancing often commences with the ordering local authority searches directly from your local Authority or through a personal search company for example Onsearch The local search plays a central role in most Bowes Park conveyancing purchase; that is if you wish to avoid any nasty surprises after you move into your new home. The search will supply data on, amongst other things, details on planning applications applicable to the property (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 thirteen topic areas.
I am purchasing a new build house in Bowes Park with a loan from Barclays Direct. The sellers refused to budge the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The sale representative advised me not disclose to my conveyancer about the extras as it will adversely affect my mortgage with the lender. 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.
I opted to have a survey completed on a house in Bowes Park before retaining solicitors. I have been advised that there is a flying freehold element to the property. My surveyor advised that some mortgage companies tend refuse to grant a loan on a flying freehold home.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Lloyds has different instructions from Birmingham Midshires. If you e-mail us we can look into this further with the appropriate mortgage company. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Bowes Park. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Bowes Park to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.
We have had DIP from Godiva Mortgages Ltd who have advised we could borrow up to £218k. When do we need to appoint a solicitor for conveyancing? Bowes Park is where we are buying.
It would be wise to instruct a conveyancing practitioner now and ask them to create a file for you. This will enable: 1) the selling agent to issue a Sales Memorandum to the relevant parties 2) the seller’s solicitor to submit the draft contract. However, do not ask your lawyer to start searches until you receive your valuation report from Godiva Mortgages Ltd and you are content to move forward.