I am progressing with the sale of my maisonette in Coulsdon and the estate agent has just e-mailed to say that the purchasers are switching solicitor. I am told that this is due to the fact that the mortgage company will only deal with solicitors on their conveyancing panel. Why would a leading lender only work with specific law firms rather the firm that they want to select for their conveyancing in Coulsdon ?

Mortgage companies have always had an approved set of law firms they are willing to work with, but in the past few years big names such as HSBC, have considered and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for over 25 years.

Lending institutions point to the increase in fraud by way of justification for the reduction – criteria have been stiffened as a smaller panel is easier to monitor. Banks tend not to disclose how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society says it is hearing daily from firms that have been removed from panels. Plenty of firms do not even realise they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyers' case. Your purchasers are unlikely to have any impact on this.

four months have elapsed since my purchase conveyancing in Coulsdon completed. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £150,000 when infact I paid £170,000. Why the discrepancy?

The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the asset from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £245,000 and identified one round the corner in Coulsdon I like with amenity areas and transport links nearby, the downside is that it only has 61 years unexpired on the lease. I can't really find anything else in Coulsdon for this price, so just wondered if I would be making a mistake acquiring a lease with such few years left?

Should you require a home loan that many years will be problematic. Reduce the offer by the anticipated lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current owner has owned the premises for a minimum of 2 years you could request that they start the process of the extension and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing solicitor regarding this matter.

I am looking into buying my first house which is in Coulsdon and I am already nervous. I couldn't find anything specific about Coulsdon. Conveyancing will be needed in due course but do you know about the Coulsdon area? or perhaps some other tips you can share?

Rather than looking online forget looking online you should go and have a look at Coulsdon. In the meantime here are some basic statistics that we found

As co-executor for the will of my grandmother I am disposing of a property in Swansea but I am based in Coulsdon. My solicitor (approximately 250 miles from merequires that I execute a stat dec before the transaction finalising. Could you suggest a conveyancing lawyer in Coulsdon who can attest this legal document for me?

Technically speaking you are not likely to need to have the documents attested by a conveyancing solicitor. Ordinarily or notary public or qualified solicitor will be fine regardless of whether they are located in Coulsdon