Holmesdale Building Society Conveyancing Panel : Questions and Answers from members of the public
My wife and I are FTBs. Within the 48 hours our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to sign with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Holmesdale Building Society have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our conveyancer is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitors should contact Holmesdale Building Society and see if they can apply for membership of the Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Holmesdale Building Society will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
My lawyer has identified a discrepancy when comparing the information in Holmesdale Building Society’s valuation report and what is in the title deeds. My lawyer says that as he is on the Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel he is duty bound to check that the lender is with this discrepancy and is still content to lend. Is my solicitor’s approach right?
A precondition to being on the Holmesdale Building Society approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Holmesdale Building Society) 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.
I need to find a Holmesdale Building Society panel solicitor in Stirling. Could you help me?
Unfortunately it’s not apparent why you need a Holmesdale Building Society panel solicitor but in any event, if you can not find one on our search tool you will need to speak directly to Holmesdale Building Society to find out which solicitors in Holmesdale Building Society are on their panel. If you do find such a firm not listed please direct them to our site to list. At a fee of one pound per month it is not expensive to register on the site
We're in London, First timers purchasing with a mortgage (lender is Holmesdale Building Society , but our solicitor is on the Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel). How long should the conveyancing process take?
The fact that your lawyer is on the Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel is a help. It would almost certainly delay matters if they were not. However, no conveyancer should guarantee a time-frame for your conveyancing due to third parties outside of our control such as delays caused by lenders,conveyancing search providers or by the other side’s solicitors. The time taken is often determined by the number of parties in a chain
I have today made my last payment due on mortgage with Holmesdale Building Society. I assume I don't need a solicitor on the Holmesdale Building Society panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?
If you have finished paying off your Holmesdale Building Society mortgage they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the Holmesdale Building Society mortgage from the register. Holmesdale Building Society,and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
but are not moving to another property
where the Holmesdale Building Society has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
the Holmesdale Building Society has instructed the Land Registry to do so
The Land Registry will send you a letter confirming that your Holmesdale Building Society mortgage has been paid off.
I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment. My financial adviser suggested a solicitor I paid an upfront payment of 200. Soon after the conveyancers contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the Holmesdale Building Society 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 Holmesdale Building Society 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.
I had an offer accepted on a property on the 17th March 2014, valuation was booked 3 days later, all came back fine. Property lawyer appointed, so all that was missing was my mortgage offer. Having made daily calls to Holmesdale Building Society and chasing them on my offer I have now been told that my offer will not be issued unless the lawyer is on the Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel. Are Holmesdale Building Society entitled to hold back the Mortgage pending the lawyer being on the approved list?
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 Holmesdale Building Society to deal with your lawyers application to be on the Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitors will be accepted.
