Dis-instruct Solicitor

Haversham77

Hi,

We are in the process of buying a house and have instructed solicitors. They have been great so far but our Mortgage lender wants to have separate legal representation. Unfortunately the Vendor is using the same firm that the lender wants to use, meaning they wont represent both of them. So we have been told that we will have to get another solicitor involved to represent the lender.

Our Estate agents have advised this is going to cost more and take a lot longer and have suggested we move to the same solicitor as the lender.

We have only had our initial ID checks done by our Solicitors, no money has been paid and no searches have been done or started.

If we dis-instruct them do you think there will be any fees to pay. Id rather avoid dis-instructing them but we have been told there will be additional costs and time (which is the most important for us)

Any Advice?

davidmcn

Are you sure you have your facts right - if the lender wants to have separate representation then you can't move to the same solicitor as the lender. Or is it just that your current solicitor isn't on your lender's panel, and the lender doesn't in fact mind if you are also advised by the same solicitor as them?

G_M

well I read it 3 times and came to the same conclusion as david.

If de-instructing, the solicitor might just pass the file (such as it is) over with no charge, or might charge for their time/work to date (if any). Unlikely to be high.

Usually as you EA says, buyers use the same solicitor as their lender, which saves both time and money.

Obviously that solicitor must be acceptable to both buyer and lender (on their 'panel'), and must not be the same person (and preferably not the same firm) as the seller is using.

Haversham77

Sorry all, our selected solicitor is not on the lenders panel.

G_M

Since your solicitor has not started work I'd be inclined to switch.

You could ask your solicitor to apply for the lender's panel but

* it might take time
* he might not want to (must be a reason he's not already done so)
* he might be ineligible (eg a sole practitioner)

Ithaca

We had a similar situation in the summer when we moved. We instructed a solicitor when we had our offer accepted and they opened a file and started some of the initial work (mainly sorting out the property information forms with us). We then ended up with a mortgage from Santander and our chosen solicitor was not on their panel. We could have kept our solicitor, but we'd have had to pay the fees for the lender's solicitor too, so we swapped to a solicitor on the lender's approved panel (who would then represent the lender and us at the same time).

Our original solicitor said it was very common and they were happy to close our file down without charge as there had not been a significant amount of work completed. We had to fill out fresh sets of the property information forms but that wasn't a significant headache, and we ended up saving a few £100s as the panel solicitor had lower rates than the firm we originally chose.

Haversham77

So, Just spoken to all involved, and our current solicitor is working out cheaper inc paying the lenders solicitor too. And he has assured us that within the time he has been doing this they have never had a delay because of duel solicitors. (He may be good at selling his service) but so far they have been great with communication. So we're going to stick with them.

Thanks All

G_M

Let us know how it goes. Good luck.

[Deleted User]

davidmcn wrote: »

Are you sure you have your facts right - if the lender wants to have separate representation then you can't move to the same solicitor as the lender. Or is it just that your current solicitor isn't on your lender's panel, and the lender doesn't in fact mind if you are also advised by the same solicitor as them?

As G_M and David above said, I read the OP and thought the same thing. And david was right. Think someone needs to be less abrasive particularly with a post count of 6.

Glad its been resolved.