Q and A’s regarding the Britannia Conveyancing Panel
from members of the public
My wife and I are first time buyers. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Britannia have this evening contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our solicitor is not on their approved list of lawyers. Is this a problem?
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 Accreditation Scheme.
Your property lawyers should contact Britannia and see if they can apply for membership of the Britannia conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Britannia will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the Britannia conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
Our god-son is buying a newly built flat with a mortgage from Britannia. His conveyancer has advised him of a delay in receiving the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. What is this document - I have never come across this before?
The form is intended to provide information to the main parties engaged in the purchase. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the Britannia conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the valuer when asked.
The Developer will be required to start the process by downloading the form and completing it.
The form will therefore need to be available for the valuer at the time of his or her site visit. The form should be sent to the Britannia conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.
Are there any apps to help find a local solicitor on the Britannia conveyancing panel? I have a car and am prepared to travel up to 10 miles to meet the lawyer.
Feel free to make use of the find a conveyancing panel tool on this website. Please choose the lender and your location and you will see a number of lawyer located nearest you. Alternatively you can type in the name of your proposed law firm and see if they are listed as being on the Britannia solicitor panel.
My solicitors in Newcastle have advised me that no longer have my conveyancing file. At the time of my purchase I took out a mortgage with Britannia. Is it case that being on the Britannia conveyancing panel they need to have retained the file for a prescribed period?
It very much depends from lender to lender but many of the Terms and Conditions of Conveyancing Panel Appointment require the file to be held for a period of 6 years. That being said we have not seen a copy of the Britannia Conveyancing Panel Terms. It might be worth you contacting Britannia directly.
When it comes to lenders such as Britannia do lawyers have to be pay a fee to be on the conveyancing panel?
We are not aware of any lender fees to be on their panel although some do charge an administration charge to deal with the processing of the conveyancing panel application.
I recently had an offer accepted on a house. My mortgage broker recommended their conveyancers I paid an upfront payment of 200. Soon after the conveyancers contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Britannia conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Britannia panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
My ex -wife’s name is on the Britannia mortgage of my property but not on the land registry. The apartment was transferred to me on our divorce many years ago by way of a sealed court order. Does my ex still have a say on the sale even though the land registry showing the property in my name alone? Will I be required to take her name of the Britannia mortgage in order to sell?
In terms of the Britannia mortgage, it is unusual that your ex-wife’s name remains on the mortgage but not on the title. It is conceivable that this is an oversight on the part of your conveyancers to ensure that her name was removed or even an administrative error on the part of Britannia in failing to update their data. In any event, it should cause difficulty providing her name no longer appears on the Land Registry title and you have a court order ordering that the property is transferred to you.
