Looking for information about your firm's panel status?

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 Accreditation Scheme. Your property lawyers should contact Nottingham Building Society and see if they can apply for membership of the Nottingham Building Society conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Nottingham Building Society will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the Nottingham Building Society conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

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 Nottingham Building Society .This is solely used to protect the Nottingham 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 Nottingham 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.

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 Nottingham Building Society 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 Nottingham Building Society solicitor panel.

If you intend to re-mortgage then Nottingham Building Society will insist on your using a conveyancer on the Nottingham Building Society conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your Nottingham Building Society conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the Nottingham Building Society mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.

Banks and Building Societies such as Nottingham Building Society can revoke their mortgage offer although this rarely happens. If Nottingham Building Society withdraw their offer they may or may not inform you or the lawyer as to the reasons why. There are many potential reasons but here are a few examples:

• Amendments if purchase price adjusted and the loan to value limits exceeded by this. Please note that Nottingham Building Society conveyancing panel solicitors would be obliged to notify Nottingham Building Society of a change in the price of the property.

• Situations where information provided by the borrower that enabled the lender to make a lending decision is fraudulent, incorrect or misleading.

• Where to proceed with the Mortgage offer would be unlawful

• Where the sale is not at arms length for value to unconnected persons

• If the lender reasonably suspects that the applicant, borrower, mortgagor or guarantor is involved in any criminal or fraudulent activity, including trading in illegal drugs or other substances, theft, robbery, deception or other serious offences, or if the applicant borrower, mortgagor or guarantor has a conviction for any serious criminal offence, including theft, deception, fraud, robbery or trade in illegal drugs or other substances;

You will need to appoint solicitors independently although you'll need to choose one on the Nottingham Building Society conveyancing panel. The solicitor represents both you and the Nottingham Building Society through the process.

Nottingham Building Society will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Nottingham Building Society 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. or 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 Nottingham Building Society you could contact your them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors.