Scottish Widows Solicitor Panel Sample Enquires to our Call Center from members of the public
My Conveyancer is not listed on the Scottish Widows Solicitor Panel. Can I still retain my preferred solicitor even though they are not on the Scottish Widows panel of approved conveyancing solicitors?
You have a number of options available to you here:
- Carry on with your existing solicitors but Scottish Widows will need to instruct a lawyer on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel. This will result in additional cost and potential delay.
- Get a new solicitor to act in the purchase, obviously checking they are on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel.
- Urge your lawyer to apply to join the Scottish Widows lender panel
Can you help?. My lawyer is not to blame but, the conveyancing for my house purchase has been going on for months. The Local Authority Search from Scottish Widows was dated random date and we have agreed a date for me to move into the property on 6 months + 3. My solicitor has advised that as she is on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel she needs to reorder the searches as they are no longer acceptable to the lender.
One of the many conditions to being on the Scottish Widows approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook Part 2 obligations (last updated for this lender on Scottish Widows)which states that a local authority search be not more than half a year old. You should nevertheless ask your lawyer to check whether something called ‘search validation’ indemnity insurance is acceptable to Scottish Widows.
I have checked your search tool I can't find the lawyer I was hoping to instruct as being on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel. My lawyer has said that they are on the Scottish Widows 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 Scottish Widows 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 Scottish Widows solicitor panel.
The firm that just started acting on my purchase in Manchester has without warning closed. I only went with them because I had to have a lawyer on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel and my family lawyer was not. I gave my credit card details for them to take £175 for searches. What are my options?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then let them know straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will 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 Scottish Widows 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
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 Scottish Widows. Is it possible to avoid using solicitors to save on the costs? My dad reckons back in the day he did a lot of it himself, just went into the land registry office and providing them with the info they needed himself
If you are getting a mortgage with Scottish Widows involved you will need to appoint a solicitor on the Scottish Widows 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 Scottish Widows. Feel free to use our search tool to look for a licensed conveyancer or solicitor on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel.
After much negotiation I have agreed a price on a house. My mortgage broker suggested a solicitor I paid an upfront payment of 150. Soon after the conveyancers contacted me to say that they were not on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel. Am I right in thinking that I should be due a refund?
You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Scottish Widows panel. They should have asked at the outset which lender you were obtaining a mortgage with. An important lesson to readers of this site is to check that the lawyers are on the appropriate lender panel.
My ex -wife’s name is on the Scottish Widows mortgage of my property but not on the land registry. The apartment was transferred to me on our divorce many years ago by way of a sealed court order. Does my ex still have a say on the sale even though the land registry showing the property in my name alone? Will I be required to take her name of the Scottish Widows mortgage in order to sell?
In terms of the Scottish Widows mortgage, it is unusual that your ex-wife’s name remains on the mortgage but not on the title. It is conceivable that this is an oversight on the part of your conveyancers to ensure that her name was removed or even an administrative error on the part of Scottish Widows in failing to update their data. In any event, it should cause difficulty providing her name no longer appears on the Land Registry title and you have a court order ordering that the property is transferred to you.