Common questions asked concerning the Monmouthshire Building Society Solicitor Panel
from members of the public
My wife and I are first time buyers. Within the 48 hours our property lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to sign with a detailed report in anticipation of exchanging contracts shortly. Monmouthshire Building Society have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our lawyer is not on their conveyancing panel. Please explain?
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 Quality Scheme.
Your solicitors should contact Monmouthshire Building Society and see if they can apply for membership of the Monmouthshire Building Society conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Monmouthshire Building Society will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the Monmouthshire Building Society conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
My husband and I changing mortgage lender for our apartment with Monmouthshire Building Society. We have a son 19 who lives with us. The solicitor on the Monmouthshire Building Society conveyancing panel requested us to identify any adults other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the apartment is repossessed. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Monmouthshire Building Society conveyancing panel as he never had to sign this form when we remortgaged 3 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right 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 Monmouthshire Building Society .This is solely used to protect the Monmouthshire 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 Monmouthshire 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.
What tools are available to search for a local solicitor on the Monmouthshire Building Society conveyancing panel? I have a car and am prepared to travel up to 10 miles to meet the solicitor.
Feel free to make use of the find a conveyancing panel tool on this page. Please choose the lender and your location and you will see a number of lawyer located nearest you. Alternatively you can type in the name of your proposed law firm and see if they are listed as being on the Monmouthshire Building Society solicitor panel.
My lawyers in Newcastle have advised me that they can not locate my conveyancing file. To assist with my purchase I took out a mortgage with Monmouthshire Building Society. Is it case that being on the Monmouthshire Building Society conveyancing panel they need to have retained the file for a number of years?
It very much depends from lender to lender but many of the Terms and Conditions of Conveyancing Panel Appointment require the file to be held for a period of 6 years. That being said we have not seen a copy of the Monmouthshire Building Society Conveyancing Panel Terms. It might be worth you contacting Monmouthshire Building Society directly.
Is it the case that all conveyancing solicitors on the Monmouthshire Building Society conveyancing panel work on a no sale no fee basis?
On the whole there are no requirements by lenders for their firms to operate on a no-sale-no-fee basis. There a small number of lenders who operate a very restricted conveyancing panel managed by a third party company (often termed in the industry as a ‘gatekeeper’). That third party may impose certain conditions such as non-sale-no fee on the panel firms. If you require this as a condition of your conveyancing then you should check with the conveyancing firm that this is part of their package
Can I be sure that the solicitor on the Monmouthshire Building Society panel is any good?
obtaining recommendations is a sensible start. Before you go ahead check if they offer a no sale no fee offer. Also you often get what you pay for - a firm which quotes more will often provide a better service than one which is cheap as chips. We would always advise that you speak with the solicitor handling your conveyancing
We are getting a further advance on our mortgage from Monmouthshire Building Society as we wish to carry out a loft conversion to our home. Do we need to appoint a solicitor on the Monmouthshire Building Society conveyancing panel to deal with the legals?
Monmouthshire Building Society would not normally instruct a member of their conveyancing panel to deal with such a matter. If they did require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Monmouthshire Building Society panel
