Can a solicitor refuse to act?

madmish00

Just when we finally thought we were getting somewhere (proposed completion date of 27th May) there has been another spanner jammed well and truly into the works

Our solicitor told us (after we had instructed them, paid them £250 on account and they had started the searches) that they were no longer on Nationwide's panel and so could not deal with our mortgage. We were told that another local firm of solicitors deals with the mortgages for them and to give their details to Nationwide and they would liaise with them

At 16:45 today I get a phonecall telling me that this local firm are now refusing to deal with the mortgage and are sending all the paperwork back to Nationwide. This is after they have had our mortgage offer for 10 days. We now apparently have to get Nationwide to re-issue the mortgage offer to a different firm of solicitors who have agreed to act but having phoned Nationwide they say that this firm is showing as 'inactive' on their panel. And now everyone is closed so I can't do anything but stress out for the rest of the weekend.

What, if anything can I do? Can a solicitor just decide they no longer want to deal with something like that? I have had no explanation as to the reason but my solicitor has said that they have sent 4 applications back today all of which are meant to be completing next week.

Arrghhh!

kingstreet

It's nothing to do with your situation. Lenders normally have your solicitor do their legal work and this avoids an element of double charging. However, to do this, lenders insist solicitors meet certain criteria, such as the number of partners in the business.

Your solicitor has tried to circumvent this process by asking other local firms to "fill in " for them, but the same thing seems to have happened.

You can either find another firm to act for you and the lender who is definitely on the Nationwide's panel, or keep your original solicitor and ask the Nationwide to appoint another firm to do their work, at your expense.

madmish00

Your solicitor has tried to circumvent this process by asking other local firms to "fill in " for them, but the same thing seems to have happened.

The firm that were supposed to be doing it are definitely still on the panel but they have just decided they no longer want to deal with it without any reason given. I just don't think they should be able to do this after they have accepted instructions (and sat on my mortgage offer for 10 days).

Fortunately after a lot of phonecalls we managed to find a solicitor still in the office at 17.30 on a Friday who is on Nationwide's panel and Nationwide are sending the paperwork over first thing Monday morning.

To be honest I am not happy with my own solicitor because if they had been up front about not being on Nationwide's panel before they started doing the searches etc we would probably have gone elsewhere. But we are too far down the line to try to change now.

kingstreet

madmish00 wrote: »

The firm that were supposed to be doing it are definitely still on the panel but they have just decided they no longer want to deal with it without any reason given. I just don't think they should be able to do this after they have accepted instructions (and sat on my mortgage offer for 10 days).

Fortunately after a lot of phonecalls we managed to find a solicitor still in the office at 17.30 on a Friday who is on Nationwide's panel and Nationwide are sending the paperwork over first thing Monday morning.

To be honest I am not happy with my own solicitor because if they had been up front about not being on Nationwide's panel before they started doing the searches etc we would probably have gone elsewhere. But we are too far down the line to try to change now.

Glad you've managed to find someone.

Sorry, I missed the one in the middle who appears to have arbitrarily decided to pull out. I can only guess at the reason. Not big enough payment from the first solicitor for taking it on?

Hopefully, this is now sorted and you can move on.

Richard_Webster

A solicitor must be quite dire not to be on Nationwide's panel. Does he do very little conveyancing?

madmish00

A solicitor must be quite dire not to be on Nationwide's panel. Does he do very little conveyancing?

No they do a lot of conveyancing. I went with them because I used them when I bought my first house and everything went fine. They were on Nationwide's panel then but I was told that last year Nationwide removed a lot of smaller local firms off the panel. This may have been speak for removing the rubbish ones but having had a good experience with them last time I took their word that everything would be fine.

Sorry, I missed the one in the middle who appears to have arbitrarily decided to pull out. I can only guess at the reason. Not big enough payment from the first solicitor for taking it on?

Quite possibly - but I would have thought that once they had agreed they would honour that. Maybe that's just naivety on my part! I suspect I don't have any line of complaint against them as I personally didn't instruct them. It's just so infuriating as they could have cause the entire chain to collapse.

terryw

Was this a fixed fee that the first solicitor had quoted for? If so, I think that is very reasonable to ask them to pay your bill for any subsequent charges over and above the fixed fee that your new solicitor will charge.

It does appear to be quite improper for any organisation to quote and accept money in advance for a service that they appear to have known that they could not provide. At the least, you need to know when they were informed that they were no longer on the panel.

Richard_Webster

Well, I had better look out then - I am very small but still on all the main lenders' panels - Co-Op/Britannia is my biggest problem. I'm even on Bank of Ireland's panel who don't normally deal with sole practitioners.

G_M

To answer your question, yes, Nationwide can decide who they will/will not accept on their panel, and yes, a solicitor can decide what work they will/will not take on.

I would be looking closely at the original terms under which you instructed solicitor number 1.
Did they give you a fixed quote?
Did that quote include acting for the mortgage lender?
Did the solicitor know at the time that the lender was Nationwide?

If the answer to all those Qs is yes, then the solicitor should be picking up the bill for any subsequent charges resulting from their not acting for the Lender.

Richard_Webster

I always ask people seeking conveyancing estimates to tell who their proposed lender is so that if i can't act I can warn them of this before they even instruct me.