I am progressing with the sale of my apartment in Belper and the estate agent has just telephoned to advise that the purchasers are appointing a new law firm. The excuse is that the mortgage company will only work with solicitors on their conveyancing panel. Why would a leading lender only engage with certain law firms rather the firm that they want to select to handle their conveyancing in Belper ?

Lenders have always had an approved set of law firms that can represent them, but in recent years big names such as Santander, have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for more than 15 years.

Lending institutions blame a rise in fraud by way of justification for the cull – criteria have been narrowed as a smaller panel is easier to keep an eye on. No lender will say how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society says it is being contacted daily by practices that have been removed from panels. Some are unaware that they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. The buyers are not going to have any impact on this.

As a novice what is the most important advice you can give me about purchase conveyancing in Belper?

Not many law firms or advisers will tell you this but conveyancing in Belper and elsewhere in Derbyshire is often a confrontational experience. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there is lots of room for conflict between you and other parties involved in the transaction. For instance, the vendor, property agent and sometimes your mortgage company. Choosing a law firm for your conveyancing in Belper is a critical decision as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONLY person in the transaction whose responsibility is to protect your best interests and to keep you safe.

There is a distinct ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone must be at fault for the process taking so long. You must always trust your conveyancer above all other players in the conveyancing process.

I've recently found out that there is a flying freehold element on a house I have offered on last month in what should have been a straight forward, no chain conveyancing. Belper is the location of the property. Can you offer any advice?

Flying freeholds in Belper are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Belper you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds very carefully. Your bank may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Belper may determine that this is not enough and that the deeds be re-written to give you the most up to date legal protection. If so, the next door neighbour also had to sign up to the revised deeds.It is possible that your lender will not accept the situation so the sooner you find out the better. You should also check with your insurance broker as to whether they will insure a flying freehold premises.

What tools are available to identify a Belper solicitor on the Alliance & Leicester conveyancing panel? I am a keen cyclist and am prepared to travel upto 25miles to meet the solicitor.

Feel free to make use of the tool on this page. Please choose the mortgage company and your location and you will see a number of Belper conveyancing lawyers located nearest you. We have detailed some Belper conveyancing firms at the bottom of this page and you can call them to verify whether they are on the Alliance & Leicester approved list

I need to find a conveyancing solicitor for remortgage conveyancing in Belper. I have chance upon a web site which appears to be the perfect solution If it is possible to get all the legals completed via web that would be preferable. Do I need to be concerned? What should out be looking out for?

As usual with these online conveyancers you need to read ALL the small print - did you notice the extra charge for dealing with the mortgage?