I am progressing with the sale of my ground floor flat in Willerby and the EA has just text me to advise that the purchasers are changing their property lawyer. The excuse is that the bank will only engage with solicitors on their conveyancing panel. On what basis would a big named mortgage company only deal with certain solicitors rather the firm that they want to choose to handle their conveyancing in Willerby ?

Mortgage companies have always had an approved set of law firms that can represent them, but in the last few years big names such as Lloyds Banking Group, have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for decades.

Lenders justify this action to a rise in fraud by way of justification for the pruning – criteria have been stiffened as a smaller panel is easier to oversee. 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. Plenty of firms 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. Your buyers are not going to have any impact on this.

As I am unsure how the conveyancing process works what is the most important number one tip you can give me concerning purchase conveyancing in Willerby?

Not many law firms shout this from the rooftops but conveyancing in Willerby or throughout East Yorkshire is often a confrontational process. Put another way, when it comes to conveyancing there is plenty of room for friction between you and other parties involved in the ownership transfer. For example, the vendor, selling agent and on occasion the bank. Choosing a law firm for your conveyancing in Willerby is a critical decision as your conveyancer is your adviser, and is the ONLY person in the legal process whose responsibility is to look after your best interests and to keep you safe.

There is a definite ongoing adversarial element to conveyancing- someone has to be blamed for the process taking so long. You your first instinct should be to trust your lawyer above the other players when it comes to the legal assignment of property.

The Willerby conveyancing solicitors that just started acting on my house acquisition in Willerby have suddenly shut down. They were on acting for me because I needed a firm on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel and my previous Willerby lawyer was not. I paid them £170 in advance. What are my options?

If you have an estate agent involved then inform them straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Clydesdale conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers should be in a position to help.

I bought my house on 3 October and the transaction details is not yet on the land registry website. Any reason for this? My conveyancing solicitor in Willerby said it should be concluded in a couple of weeks. Are titles in Willerby uniquely lengthy to register?

There is nothing unique when it comes to conveyancing in Willerby registration formalities. As opposed to being determined by geographic area, timescales can vary depending on who lodges the application, whether there are errors and whether the Land registry communicate with any third parties. At present approximately three quarters of such applications are completed in less than three weeks but occasionally there can be extensive delays. Historically registration occurs after the buyer has moved in to the property therefore 'speed' is not usually an essential issue but if there is a degree of urgency associated with the registration then you or your lawyers can contact the land registry and explain the circumstances.

Due to the advice of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in Willerby prior to appointing lawyers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold element to the house. The surveyor advised that some banks may not issue a mortgage on a flying freehold home.

It varies from the lender to lender. HSBC has different instructions from Halifax. If you call us we can check via the relevant bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can assist as they are accustomed to dealing with flying freeholds in Willerby. Conveyancing can be more complicated and therefore you should check with your conveyancing solicitor in Willerby to see if the conveyancing costs will increase in light of this.