Post Office/Bank of Ireland won't use my conveyancer

beefturnmail

Hi,

I'm a FTB. I have an issue with my mortgage lender (Post Office/Bank of Ireland) being picky about my conveyancer, who is not on their panel. They are basically saying I either: 1) need to find a new one who is on their panel, or 2) they will need to instruct a solicitor to act on their behalf which I will have to pay for. Has anyone else had experience of this? I'm considering the second option, as bank of Ireland esitmate the additional cost will be £100, which when factoring in the legal fees for my solicitor means the total cost is better than quotes I've had from the EA and high street solicitors. This would also avoid the hassle of having to instruct a new conveyancer and getting my deposit back from my existing one.

However I'm nervous that the £100 will turn into much higher costs (PO said it could be higher if additional legal work were needed) - how likely is this? Would there be any other problems involved with using a separate conveyancer to my solicitor?

Any advice/experience appreciated!

P.S. I wish I'd know that mortgage lenders used solicitor panels before I instructed one - I don't think this is made clear enough by lenders

firstaspect

I've never heard of that before, I've always sorted out my conveyancer about the same time as sorting the mortgage as 2 very seperate things.

Person_one

When I bought with the co-op they made us use a locum solicitor in addition to the one we chose as they wouldn't work with 'lone' practitioners. I don't remember paying any extra for it though, it just made the process slower.

Richard_Webster

When you ask for a conveyancing quote you should tell the solicitor who your proposed lender is and then they can tell you whether or not they can act for your lender.

I always ask my potential clients who their lender is because it is so much hassle dealing with another solicitor acting for the lender that frankly I would rather the client went somewhere else to start with if I am not on the lender's panel. Fortunately I don't have that problem with Bank of Ireland.

Ankatden

Lenders are now refusing to do work with certain Solicitors / Conveyancers who has not had a minimum number of mortgages via the Lender over a time period and will insist on only using panel members.

It comes down to the bottom line of do you wish to have a mortgage with them, if so then they will insist on you meeting their requirements.

FTBFun

beefturnmail wrote: »

P.S. I wish I'd know that mortgage lenders used solicitor panels before I instructed one - I don't think this is made clear enough by lenders

Sorry to be blunt but I have a Post Office mortgage and can remember this being one of the questions - I asked my conveyancer for their panel number (or something like that) before proceeding to full application to make sure.

How much is the deposit with your unavailable conveyancer? It might be worthwhile just dropping them for someone else, considering how competitive the mortgages are through the Post Office/Bank of Ireland.

beefturnmail

Deposit is £300 for disbursements though no searches or anything have been conducted yet. Is it possible to just switch conveyancers like this?

seraphina

Yes, this was made pretty clear to us in the Post Office application - IIRC their panel is pretty big so should be easy to find one. I'd cut my losses with your original one - using one on their panel means you should get one who knows exactly what the PO want.

dizziblonde

seraphina wrote: »

Yes, this was made pretty clear to us in the Post Office application - IIRC their panel is pretty big so should be easy to find one. I'd cut my losses with your original one - using one on their panel means you should get one who knows exactly what the PO want.

We're in the middle of a PO mortgage app and they've said from the start we could use their solicitor or needed one on their panel. They even said it when we were just ringing up as an initial enquiry.

Richard_Webster

Basically they seem to use any firm that has two or more partners (unless they have taken some of them off their panel!) plus a few favoured sole practitioners such as myself.

Because I am a sole practitioner, but I am on their panel, I have to tell potential clients that, otherwise brokers etc put them off using me because they think I am not on Bank of Ireland's panel because I am an SP.

beefturnmail

I guess I must have been unlucky or missed it - I did it all online, and I don't remember seeing anything about a panel there. How do I go about disinstructing the existing solicitor - by letter? what would be reasonable for them to charge me for the week since I instructed them? All that's been done so far is the original documentation has been sent out which I've filled out and the Money Laundering ID check. they ahve cashed my £300 deposit.