Solicitor refuses to work with lender - urgent advice needed

JustMe18

Hello. We are getting mortgage with Kent reliance, I checked their website for solicitors panel before picking one and this solicitor ( JS Law ) is there as their preferred solicitor. So we've got offer on Friday, previously we already paid some fees to solicitor ( around £700), because we've been waiting to start the process ASAP. Today solicitor emailed just one sentence  - Sadly we can't work with Kent reliance. What??  How is that possible, if Kent has them as preferred? Also will they refund fees?  and will Kent need to amend offer, is we select new solicitor? 

ACG

Kent will amend the offer to a new solicitor. 
They should refund the money for any work not carried out. If they have instructed the searches, they can be transferred over to a new firm. 

It could just be that they were added to Kent' panel but Kent were very onerous and so the solicitors decided they would not do any more cases with Kent. 

JustMe18

ACG said:

Kent will amend the offer to a new solicitor. 
They should refund the money for any work not carried out. If they have instructed the searches, they can be transferred over to a new firm. 

It could just be that they were added to Kent' panel but Kent were very onerous and so the solicitors decided they would not do any more cases with Kent. 

Thanks for explaining, so amending solicitor on the offer is no harm to the offer itself I guess?  we have been waiting for it long, so feeling a bit frustrated, especially they act on the sale of our house as well, so wanted to make things easier with just one solicitor, as I still don't know how the exchange works with deposit as our deposit will be from sale? 
 Don't think they started searches, but they also took "file opening fee", not sure what that one is. Weird, that Kent put them as solicitor to act as ours and theirs solicitors or they would always just put the same one? 

ACG

No it wont be an issu echanging solicitors, it might just take a day or 2. Funny you mention it actually as I have an offer issues last month. The solicitor wants the offer re-issuing at a different branch of the same firm. It should be done later this week. 

Its cropped up a few times over the years where people need to change solicitors, various reasons for it but it has never been a problem. 

JustMe18

ACG said:

No it wont be an issu echanging solicitors, it might just take a day or 2. Funny you mention it actually as I have an offer issues last month. The solicitor wants the offer re-issuing at a different branch of the same firm. It should be done later this week. 

Its cropped up a few times over the years where people need to change solicitors, various reasons for it but it has never been a problem. 

Would you recommend Stephensons at all? Or better to go with a smaller firm? we need to exchange pretty quick, as due to a first mortgage offer been declined, our buyer & also developer kindly agreed to wait another month for us, so don’t want to to delay things even more. Last time I bought a house it got exchanged in 4 weeks. 

Hoenir

JustMe18 said:

Hello. We are getting mortgage with Kent reliance, I checked their website for solicitors panel before picking one and this solicitor ( JS Law ) is there as their preferred solicitor. So we've got offer on Friday, previously we already paid some fees to solicitor ( around £700), because we've been waiting to start the process ASAP. Today solicitor emailed just one sentence  - Sadly we can't work with Kent reliance. What??  How is that possible, if Kent has them as preferred? Also will they refund fees?  and will Kent need to amend offer, is we select new solicitor? 

The website might not be updated that quickly . Solicitors have to be preapproved in order to act on a lenders behalf. A commercial relationship like any other.  They come and go. Select a new one from those available on the list. 

JustMe18

Hoenir said:

JustMe18 said:

Hello. We are getting mortgage with Kent reliance, I checked their website for solicitors panel before picking one and this solicitor ( JS Law ) is there as their preferred solicitor. So we've got offer on Friday, previously we already paid some fees to solicitor ( around £700), because we've been waiting to start the process ASAP. Today solicitor emailed just one sentence  - Sadly we can't work with Kent reliance. What??  How is that possible, if Kent has them as preferred? Also will they refund fees?  and will Kent need to amend offer, is we select new solicitor? 

The website might not be updated that quickly . Solicitors have to be preapproved in order to act on a lenders behalf. A commercial relationship like any other.  They come and go. Select a new one from those available on the list. 

You missunderstood the whole thing - its not Kent, who is refusing to work with solicitor, its the other way round. Kent is happy to work with them and has them on the panel. 

I am happy to select someone else, but this firm is acting for my sale as well and they also did some work on a purchase, so It’s not nice for them to refuse now to work with Kent. 

JustMe18

Update - JS Law just replied, they are back on the panel, as Kent removed them previously and they didn't notice they'are back. So they can act. 

JustMe18

ACG said:

Kent will amend the offer to a new solicitor. 
They should refund the money for any work not carried out. If they have instructed the searches, they can be transferred over to a new firm. 

It could just be that they were added to Kent' panel but Kent were very onerous and so the solicitors decided they would not do any more cases with Kent. 

Literally just had a call from solicitor and they said Kent added them back and they can now act. So I think they didn't know about that and that;s why she said they can;t act 

ACG

JustMe18 said:

ACG said:

Kent will amend the offer to a new solicitor. 
They should refund the money for any work not carried out. If they have instructed the searches, they can be transferred over to a new firm. 

It could just be that they were added to Kent' panel but Kent were very onerous and so the solicitors decided they would not do any more cases with Kent. 

Literally just had a call from solicitor and they said Kent added them back and they can now act. So I think they didn't know about that and that;s why she said they can;t act 

Ah, I thought you meant they did not deal with Kent by choice (specialist lenders can be a bit more onerous). Good to see its all back on track. 

JustMe18

ACG said:

JustMe18 said:

ACG said:

Kent will amend the offer to a new solicitor. 
They should refund the money for any work not carried out. If they have instructed the searches, they can be transferred over to a new firm. 

It could just be that they were added to Kent' panel but Kent were very onerous and so the solicitors decided they would not do any more cases with Kent. 

Literally just had a call from solicitor and they said Kent added them back and they can now act. So I think they didn't know about that and that;s why she said they can;t act 

Ah, I thought you meant they did not deal with Kent by choice (specialist lenders can be a bit more onerous). Good to see its all back on track. 

that;s what I thought at the first instance, as they just emailed saying they don't deal with Kent. But then they emailed today to say it was Kent who removed them from the panel, but looks like they've been re-added.