My house in Southsea is up for sale and I have a buyer. Will the conveyancing practitioner need to be required to be on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel in order to deal with redeeming my mortgage?

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Leeds Building Society conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. It might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their requirements fairly frequently in recent years.

Is it necessary to take out insurance to cover chancel repairs when purchasing a residence in Southsea?

Unless a previous acquisition of the premises took place after 12 October 2013 you may assume that conveyancing practitioners handling conveyancing in Southsea to continue to recommend a chancel search and or insurance against a claim.

I used Stirling Law a few years past for my conveyancing in Southsea. Now, I need the files however cannot find the solicitor. What do I do?

Do call the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to assist in tracking down 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 Southsea of the conveyancing firm of solicitors you previously hired, the name of conveyancing solicitor with whom you had dealings, and the date on which you last had dealings with the firm.

My husband and I are a fortnight into a residential purchase having been referred to a firm by the high street agent to execute conveyancing in Southsea. I am not happy. Can you help me find new lawyers?

A lawyer would need to be very bad to suggest replacing them. Has your loan offer been generated? In the event that it has you will need to make them aware of the replacement lawyer and get the offer are re-issued. Your solicitor ideally needs to be on the mortgage company panel to avoid supplemental charges and frustration. That should be your starting point. The find a solicitor tool can assist you in finding a lender approved solicitor for your home move in Southsea

Sixweeks into purchasing a house in Southsea. Conveyancing lawyer has told us the property is "Leasehold". Does this adversely affect our Santander valuation?

Southsea conveyancing does not usually involve leasehold houses. The main consideration here is the remaining lease term and the ground rent. If there are over a hundred years remaining with a nominal rent, it's virtually freehold, so it’s unlikely to impact the value significantly.

At the other end of the spectrum, if it's, say, Sixty years it will have a material impact on the saleability, and probably wouldn't be mortgageable. The length of lease and ground rent will be stated in the lease provided to your lawyer.