Solicitor not on lender's board

amnblog

This is another part of the buying process which is not joined up.

Lenders will only work with solicitors on their panel. Solicitors know that, but never seem to alert the client that they are not on a particular panel and therefore decline taking the case.

Estate Agents seems to be in the habit of pushing buyers to appoint a solicitor immediately (often before lending is fully planned), so the whole thing is done in the wrong order.

If a buyer needs lending, no sale is happening unless the Lender is happy. Therefore, getting the lending planned should be the first step, before any allocation of solicitors.

kilby_007

So the old solicitors are refunding us in full and passing our file onto the new solicitors and the estate agent has updated the vendor, so all problems solved! It's actually worked out about the same price for conveyancing and we've saved £1200 on the mortgage deal (when compared to the deal we'd have had to switch to if we'd stayed with the old solicitor). Happy days :-)

davilown

Ive had a similar issue - uses a local solicitor but they're not on HSBCs panel. Costing me £295 extra hut only £100 more when all legal costs are included when compared to 3 other local firms.

My fault, should have checked first.......

kilby_007

davilown wrote: »

Ive had a similar issue - uses a local solicitor but they're not on HSBCs panel. Costing me £295 extra hut only £100 more when all legal costs are included when compared to 3 other local firms.

My fault, should have checked first.......

You live & learn! Well, saying that I should have learnt the first time because I remember having to check that the same solicitors was on Halifax's panel a few years ago. Doh!

Glover1862

My solicitor got added to the panel in less than 24 hours, simply a process of sending a few fax I was told, my mortgage was with platform.

kilby_007

Glover1862 wrote: »

My solicitor got added to the panel in less than 24 hours, simply a process of sending a few fax I was told, my mortgage was with platform.

My solicitor did try. She said Sainsbury's panel applications is closed for the rest of the year.

On another note, I'm a bit annoyed at my mortgage advisor who decided to instruct a solicitor for us at the other end of the country without even asking us! I got a call from said solicitor out of the blue saying that our paperwork is in the post! It's still on our application on the advisor's website. I asked them to change it back to our new solicitor which they said they would, but they're taking their time.