MPowered Mortgages Conveyancing Panel : Questions and Answers
from members of the public
My wife and I are FTBs. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has forwarded the sale agreement to sign with a detailed report with the expectation that exchange is imminent. MPowered Mortgages have this afternoon contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. What do we do from here?
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 MPowered Mortgages and see if they can apply for membership of the MPowered Mortgages conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable MPowered Mortgages will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the MPowered Mortgages conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.
Our son is purchasing a new build apartment with a home loan from MPowered Mortgages. His conveyancer has said that there is a delay in receiving the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. What is this document - I have never come across this before?
The form is intended to provide information to the main parties engaged in the transaction. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the MPowered Mortgages conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the valuer when asked.
The Developer will be required to start the process by downloading the form and completing it.
The form will therefore need to be available for the valuer at the time of his or her site visit. The form should be sent to the MPowered Mortgages conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.
Do all the licensed conveyancers and solicitor practices listed on your search have online case tracking as I was under the impression that this was a precondition of being on the MPowered Mortgages conveyancing panel?
The Council of Mortgage Lenders or BSA do not require online case tracking. Some law firms operate such technology and some don't.
My house is up for sale and I have a buyer. Does my solicitor have to be on the MPowered Mortgages conveyancing panel in order to deal with paying off my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the MPowered Mortgages conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. it might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their requirements fairly frequently at the moment.
Are all solicitor practices on the MPowered Mortgages conveyancing panel overseen by the SRA?
As a firm of solicitors, in order to be on the MPowered Mortgages conveyancing panel they would need to be regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. Many lenders do allow licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such firms would be regulated by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC).
Do most banks 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 MPowered Mortgages conveyancing panel requirements are different to MPowered Mortgages’s conveyancing panel requirements.
Hi, thinking about buying a house off my mate. Once we agree a price, what’s the best way to move forward? I hope to get a mortgage with MPowered Mortgages. Is it possible to avoid using 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 MPowered Mortgages involved you will need to appoint a solicitor on the MPowered Mortgages 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 MPowered Mortgages. Feel free to use our search tool to look for a licensed conveyancer or solicitor on the MPowered Mortgages conveyancing panel.
