Common questions asked concerning the Market Harborough Building Society Solicitor Panel from members of the public
Can you please explain the reason why all property lawyers are not on the Market Harborough Building Society Solicitor panel?
Market Harborough Building Society and other banks ordinarily imposes restrictions either the type or the number of conveyancing practices on their approved list of lawyers. Typical examples of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that Market Harborough Building Society have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of Market Harborough Building Society Conveyancer Panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, Conveyancing is not their speciality? To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime; probably not.
My wife and I are refinancing our penthouse with Market Harborough Building Society. We have a son 18 who lives with us. The solicitor on the Market Harborough Building Society conveyancing panel has asked us to disclose any adults other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this form unique to the Market Harborough Building Society conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we remortgaged 4 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Market Harborough Building Society conveyancing panel solicitor is doing the right thing 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 Market Harborough Building Society .This is solely used to protect the Market Harborough 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 Market Harborough 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.
Are the lawyers identified as being on the Market Harborough Building Society conveyancing panel, together with their details provided by Market Harborough Building Society?
The law firm practices themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Market Harborough Building Society conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Market Harborough Building Society directly.
I am attempting to get my former partner taken off the mortgage deeds. Can Market Harborough Building Society really insist on which solicitor I can or can not instruct?
You can use any solicitor you like but Market Harborough Building Society then has the right to appoint a different solicitor to act for them at your expense. It might be more cost effective and quicker to instruct a lawyer who is on the Market Harborough Building Society solicitors panel
I have paid off my mortgage with Market Harborough Building Society. I assume I don't need a solicitor on the Market Harborough Building Society panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Am I right?
If you have finished paying off your Market Harborough 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 Market Harborough Building Society mortgage from the register. Market Harborough 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 Market Harborough Building Society has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
the Market Harborough Building Society has instructed the Land Registry to do so
The Land Registry will send you a letter confirming that your Market Harborough Building Society mortgage has been paid off.
I was told four weeks ago that my mortgage has been agreed
to by Market Harborough Building Society. Is it usual for Market Harborough Building Society to only issue the offer once my
solicitor is approved on their conveyancing panel?
A lender would not issue an offer until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Market Harborough Building Society to deal with your lawyers application to be on the Market Harborough Building Society conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitors will be accepted.
My offer on house has been accepted, the seller does however have a dependent purchase. 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? When should I get the mortgage app going with Market Harborough 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 Market Harborough 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 Market Harborough Building Society and pay for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they pay their solicitor to press on with searches.