Examples of recent questions relating to the Kent Reliance Solicitor Panel from members of the public
It has come to my attention via my IFA that my property lawyer is not on the Kent Reliance Conveyancing panel. What can I do to be certain that this is indeed the case?
The first thing you need to do is to contact your conveyancer. You lawyer should advise you of the situation. If they are not on the panel they may recommend you to a firm that is on the conveyancing panel for Kent Reliance.
My fiance and I are refinancing our maisonette with Kent Reliance. We have a son 19 who lives with us. The solicitor on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel requested us to identify any adults other than ourselves who reside at the property. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have two concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we bought 5 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his rights 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 Kent Reliance .This is solely used to protect the Kent Reliance 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 Kent Reliance 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.
Having used your search tool I can't find the lawyer I was hoping to instruct as being on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. My lawyer has said that they are on the Kent Reliance 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 Kent Reliance 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 Kent Reliance solicitor panel.
The solicitors that I appointed last week on my purchase in Manchester has suddenly shut down. They were on acting for me because I had to have a firm on the Kent Reliance 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 can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would 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 Kent Reliance 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 may be able to assist
When it comes to mortgage companies such as Kent Reliance do solicitors 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.
I was thinking of purchasing my friend’s property. Assuming we can agree a figure, what’s the best way to proceed? I plan to obtain a mortgage with Kent Reliance. Is there anyway to cut out the solicitors to save on the costs? My father said that years ago it was possible to take the documents into the local Land Registry office and they did the rest
If you are getting a mortgage with Kent Reliance involved you will need to appoint a solicitor on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. We would not encourage you to both use the same solicitors' firm. There are clear conflict of interest issues and it's not going to make a huge difference to the speed of the overall process. So as not to hold things us you should pass on your solicitors details to Kent Reliance. Feel free to use our search tool to look for a licensed conveyancer or solicitor on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel.
I have instructed a lawyer having checked that they are on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel. Does my lawyer arrange the survey of the property?
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I've read lots of mortgage guides,I note that they all recommend that you should get your house surveyed prior to buying it. When I asked my solicitor - who is on the Kent Reliance conveyancing panel - on this she said they don't do this and I need to contract an independent surveyor. is that correct?
Kent Reliance will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Kent Reliance will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey.
You may wish to consider appointing your own surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller.
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Your lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Kent Reliance you could contact your them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors.