Ecology Building Society Solicitor Panel Recently Asked Questions from members of the public
My partner and I are novices when it comes to buying a property. Within the last couple of days our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to sign with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Ecology Building Society have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
When purchasing a property with the benefit 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 solicitors should contact Ecology Building Society and see if they can apply for membership of the Ecology Building Society conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Ecology Building Society will instruct their own solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the Ecology Building Society conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
My husband and I changing mortgage lender for our apartment with Ecology Building Society. We have a son approaching twenty who lives with us. The solicitor on the Ecology Building Society conveyancing panel requested us to identify anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the flat is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this document specific to the Ecology Building Society conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we bought 5 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?
On the face of it your lawyer has done nothing wrong as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to Ecology Building Society .This is solely used to protect the Ecology Building Society if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave.
It does not impact your son’s right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of Ecology Building Society had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.
I have checked your search tool I can't find the lawyer I was hoping to instruct as being on the Ecology Building Society conveyancing panel. My lawyer has said that they are on the Ecology Building Society approved panel. How can I be sure given that they are not listed on your directory?
Not all firms are yet listed on our lender panel search tool which is still relatively new. Law firms are listing on a daily basis and it is probably the case that your lawyer is on the Ecology Building Society conveyancing lawyer and you should probably take them at their word. Please do feel free to suggest that they completing their listing on our site as it would only cost them £1 a month to list themselves as being on the Ecology Building Society solicitor panel.
The lawyers that I appointed last week on my purchase in Hendon has suddenly closed. I only went with them because I needed a lawyer on the Ecology Building Society conveyancing panel and my preferred lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take £175 for searches. What should be my next steps?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Most sellers would be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Ecology Building Society conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors may be able to help
is it true that all solicitor practices on the Ecology Building Society conveyancing panel regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority?
As solicitors, in order to be on the Ecology Building Society conveyancing panel they would need to be regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. Many lenders do allow licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such firms would be regulated by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC).
I was told four weeks ago that my mortgage has been agreed
to by Ecology Building Society. Is it usual for Ecology Building Society to only issue the offer once my
solicitor is approved on their conveyancing panel?
A lender would not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Ecology Building Society to deal with your lawyers application to be on the Ecology Building Society conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitors will be accepted.
At last I have had an offer on an apartment accepted, but there is a chain. The vendors have offered on somewhere, but not been accepted yet, and have viewings of other properties in the pipeline. My conveyancing solicitor has been instructed. What should be my next step? At what point should I appy for the mortgage with Ecology Building Society?
It is usual to have concerns where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket too early (mortgage application is approx £1k, then survey/valuation, conveyancing search costs, etc). First you should check that your solicitor is on the Ecology Building Society conveyancing panel. As to the next stages this very much depends on the circumstances of your case, desire for this property and on the state of the market. In a hot mortgage some buyers would pally for the mortgage with Ecology Building Society and pay for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they pay their solicitor to press on with searches.
