Examples of recent questions relating to the Intelligent Finance Conveyancing Panel from members of the public
On what basis could a law firm be removed from the Intelligent Finance solicitor panel?
According to a recent survey report by the solicitors regulator three quarters of solicitor practices had been excluded from a lender panel. The top reasons in order are :
- Low volume of transactions
- the lawyer is a sole practitioner
- as part of the HSBC panel reduction
- regulatory contact by SRA
- accidental removal. We are not aware of the specific or common criteria for removal by Intelligent Finance
We are due to exchange on the purchase a house but as a result of damage from the recent storms I have agreed compensation from the seller of £3k approx by way of a reduction in the price. This was going to be dealt with as part of the conveyancing process but my mortgage company Intelligent Finance will not agree to this. Why was Intelligent Finance even consulted?
Your lawyer being on the Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel is duty bound to inform Intelligent Finance of any changes to the purchase price. If you were to refuse your lawyers to disclose the reduction to Intelligent Finance then they would have to discontinue acting for you and Intelligent Finance.
Are the lawyers identified as being on the Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel, together with their details provided by Intelligent Finance?
The law firm practices themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Intelligent Finance directly.
The firm that I recently instructed on my purchase in London has suddenly closed. I chose them because I needed a firm on the Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel and my previous lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take £175 for searches. What do I do now?
If you have an estate agent involved then let them know straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You will need to appoint new lawyers that are on the Intelligent Finance 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 lawyers should be in a position to help
When it comes to lenders such as Intelligent Finance do lawyers have to be pay a fee to be on the list of approved solicitors?
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.
We have a mortgage agreed in principle with Intelligent Finance. Solicitors have been appointed? How long does it take for Intelligent Finance to send the offer to our conveyancer
There is no definitive answer here. Have Intelligent Finance completed the valuation? Have you advised Intelligent Finance as your lawyers details and checked that your lawyer is on the Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel? sometimes it can take as long as six weeks for a mortgage offer to be issued
My ex -wife’s name is on the Intelligent Finance 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 Intelligent Finance mortgage in order to sell?
In terms of the Intelligent Finance 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 Intelligent Finance 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.