Looking for information about your firm's panel status?

If you are buying a property with the assistance of a mortgage it is usual for the purchaser's solicitors to also act for the purchaser's lender.

In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your property lawyers should contact Adam & Company and see if they can apply for membership of the Adam & Company conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Adam & Company will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the Adam & Company conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.

A precondition to being on the Adam & Company approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Adam & Company) which do require that your lawyer disclose any incorrect assumptions in the lender’s valuation report and the legal papers. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your lawyer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.

It is not clear why you need a Adam & Company panel solicitor but in any event, if you can not find one on our search tool you will need to speak directly to Adam & Company to find out which solicitors in Adam & Company are on their panel. If you do find such a firm not listed please direct them to our site to list. After all the cost is only one £1 a month

The first thing to point out is that, this is very unlikely to happen. In most cases even where a law firm is removed off of a panel the lender would allow the completion to go ahead as the lender would appreciate the difficulties that they would place you in if you have ti instruct a new solicitor days before completion. In a worst case scenario where the lender insists that you instruct a new firm then it is possible for a very good lawyer to expedite the conveyancing albeit that you may pay a significant premium for this. The analogous situation is where a buyer instructs a lawyer, exchanges contracts and the law firm is shut down by the regulator such as the SRA. Again, in this situation you can find lawyers who can troubleshoot their way to bring the conveyancing to a satisfactory conclusion - albeit at a cost.

Banks and Building Societies such as Adam & Company can withdraw their mortgage offer although this rarely happens. In the unlikely event that Adam & Company withdraw their offer they may or may not inform you or the lawyer as to the reasons why. There are many potential reasons but here are a number of examples:

• Adam & Company may amend or withdraw an offer if the Adam & Company conveyancing panel solicitor is unable to confirm compliance with any of the conditions of the mortgage offer or if any of the terms of the mortgage offer cannot be satisfied

• Situations where information provided by the borrower that enabled the lender to make a lending decision is fraudulent, incorrect or misleading.

• Where the Lender’s right to possession is fettered in some way

• If the lender reasonably believe that the applicant, borrower, mortgagor or guarantor is insolvent or is about to become insolvent or has or will have a petition presented or if any one or all enter into any arrangement with their creditors generally or if any one or all should suffer a material change in their financial circumstances

• If the solicitor on the Adam & Company conveyancing panel acting for the applicant, borrower, mortgagor or guarantor cannot comply with Adam & Company ‘s instructions

Complaining to Adam & Company about their conveyancing panel is unlikely to yield much of a response. All solicitors and conveyancer must have a complaints procedure. You can get information from the solicitor’s or conveyancer’s website or ask at their office. They must tell you about it if you ask.

The Legal Ombudsman will make sure that your complaint is properly dealt with by the solicitor. It can also advise you how to complain.

If a licensed conveyancer does not have a complaints procedure or will not tell you about it, contact the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), which will make sure that your complaint is properly dealt with by the conveyancer. Please see below for more information.

Mortgage companies tend not to not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Adam & Company to deal with your lawyers application to be on the Adam & Company conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitors will be accepted.