Q and A’s regarding the Kensington Mortgage Solicitor Panel from members of the public
My wife and I are first time buyers. Within the last couple of days our solicitor has forwarded the sale agreement to sign with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. Kensington Mortgage have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that they have now hit a problem as our lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. 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 Quality Scheme. Your solicitors should contact Kensington Mortgage and see if they can apply for membership of the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Kensington Mortgage will instruct their own solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own solicitors, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
Can you clarify something for me?. My lawyer is not to blame but, my purchase conveyancing has been going on for months. The Local Authority Search from Kensington Mortgage was issued random date and we have agreed a date for me to move into the property on Tues etc. My lawyer informs me that as she is on the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel she needs to reorder the searches as they are no longer acceptable to the lender.
A precondition to being on the Kensington Mortgage approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Kensington Mortgage)which states that a local authority search be not more than half a year old. You should nevertheless ask your lawyer to check whether something called ‘search validation’ indemnity insurance is acceptable to Kensington Mortgage.
I am searching for conveyancing quotes online. Can I be confident that all the firms that are identified on your site are on the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel?
The law firms listed on our site have advised us that they are on the Kensington Mortgage panel and agreed to advise us to take down their listing in the event of removal off of the Kensington Mortgage panel. To date we have not been informed by either a mortgage company or a member of the public that the data about a specific firm being on the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel is incorrect.
I was scheduled to move into my first house last Thursday. My solicitor is on the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel but has changed address in the past couple of months and had not advised Kensington Mortgage of their new address. Kensington Mortgage has locked down the release of mortgage funds as the information from the solicitors isn't correct.
This is a rare situation indeed. The majority of lender Terms of Conveyancing Panel Appointment specifically oblige the solicitor to inform the lender of an address change. Your solicitor needs to treat this with the utmost urgency. Do speak with or register your concern with the senior partner (assuming he or she is not your direct lawyer). Most lenders would be reasonable in this situation and expedite the resolution of this issue. It may be prudent to enlist the help of your local Kensington Mortgage branch or your mortgage broker to see if they can assist.
I had instructed online conveyancers based in Cardiff who are on the Kensington Mortgage solicitor panel. They are now charging me a separate fee of £195 for the legal aspects of the Kensington Mortgage mortgage. Is this an additional conveyancing fee specified by Kensington Mortgage?
Unfortunately, as long as it is in their Terms and Conditions or Quote then yes your solicitors can charge a fee for this. This fee is not set by Kensington Mortgage but by your lawyers. Some firms on the Kensington Mortgage will charge an ‘acting for lender’ fee and others do not.
Do the majority of lenders operate their own panel of solicitors?
Many lenders do operate a restricted conveyancing panel but a lot of lenders allow any solicitors to join their panel so long as they meet their criteria. Each lender sets their own criteria. For example the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel requirements are different to Kensington Mortgage’s conveyancing panel criteria.
My ex -wife’s name is on the Kensington Mortgage 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 Kensington Mortgage mortgage in order to sell?
As regards the Kensington Mortgage 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 Kensington Mortgage 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.