My wife and I are buying a house in Oxford. It might be a silly question but how we can trust a conveyancer? At some point we have to send our life savings into their account. What is the protection we have from them run away with our monies?

Be assured that all money in a Solicitors client account is 100% safe, and even if your Solicitor ran off with it, the Law Society would reimburse you fully.

If you had a top tip for choosing a conveyancing solicitor in Oxford what would it be?

It would be unwise to be seduced by the cheapest Oxford conveyancing quote. You really do get what you’re paying for when it comes to conveyancing solicitors. A cheap quote may mean that the conveyancing solicitor is handling a lot of jobs at one time and you won’t get the quality of service and the attention that you need. It is, however, wise to use a conveyancer who has a fixed fee on a no sale, no fee basis. This way, you go into the conveyancing with your eyes wide open.

Having read lots of house buying guides, I note that they all recommend that you should get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my local Oxford solicitor - who is on the Lloyds conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. Is that normal?

Lloyds will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Lloyds will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. Your lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by your Oxford postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Lloyds, you could contact them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors in Oxford.

I know that there are debates on Chancel Insurance on online forums. Do I require chancel insurance when purchasing a property in Oxford? or I am told that there is a law dating back centuries that means some owners of property residing in a parish church boundary may be liable to contribute towards maintenance towards the chancel within the church. Is this appropriate for conveyancing in Oxford?

Unless a previous acquisition of the premises took place post 12 October 2013 you could assume that lawyers carrying out conveyancing in Oxford to continue to suggest a chancel search and or insurance against a claim.

Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to my property are lost. The conveyancers who handled the conveyancing in Oxford 4 years ago are no longer around. What are my next steps?

As long as the title is registered the information relating to your ownership will be retained by the Land Registry with a Title Number. It is possible to conduct a search at the Land Registry, locate your property and order current copies of the property title for a small fee. Where the title is Leasehold then the Land Registry will also normally hold a certified duplicate of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be obtained for twenty pounds.

I'm buying a new build house in Oxford with a mortgage from Norwich and Peterborough Building Society. The sellers would not budge the amount so I negotiated £7000 of fixtures and fittings instead. The property agent told me not disclose to my solicitor about this deal as it would put at risk my mortgage with the bank. Do I keep my lawyer in the dark?.

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.

Yesterday I discovered that there is a flying freehold issue on a property I have offered on a fortnight ago in what was supposed to be a quick, no chain conveyancing. Oxford is the location of the property. What do you suggest?

Flying freeholds in Oxford are unusual but are more likely to exist in relation to terraced houses. Even where you use a solicitor outside Oxford you would need to get your solicitor to go through the deeds diligently. Your mortgage company may require your conveyancing solicitor to take out an indemnity policy. Some of the more diligent conveyancing solicitors in Oxford may ascertain 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 residence.