FAQs for the Scottish Widows Solicitor Panel from members of the public
My IFA has has requested my law firm’s panel reference for the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel. What is the best way to find this out. I have e-mailed my local Scottish Widows office but they cant find it on their system.
the sensible thing to do is ask for this information from your solicitor. They should have a central record lender panel numbers including the Scottish Widows panel reference.
Please help. My solicitor is assuring me that he is legally obliged to apply for a Local Authority search because the firm are on the Scottish Widows solicitor panel. Is my lawyer correct?
You have limited options available to you. As you are taking a mortgage with Scottish Widows your lawyer has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your lawyer would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of Scottish Widows’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to follow the CML Handbook requirements last updated Scottish Widows. even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out a local authority search.
Are the lawyers identified as being on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel, together with their details provided by Scottish Widows?
The law firm practices themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Scottish Widows directly.
My house is up for sale and I have a buyer. Does my solicitor have to be on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel in order to deal with redeeming my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Scottish Widows 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.
My existing mortgage is with Scottish Widows. My uncle retired last week and wants to pay off the mortgage left on the property. After Scottish Widows is paid, I want to transfer the property to my mother's name; How long will it roughly take? Do we need two separate solicitors on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel? I do not intend to live at the property once the Scottish Widows mortgage is discharged.
You
will need a solicitor but they need not be on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel.
You will need a solicitor to draw up the transfer and
to deal with the Land Registry formalities. The only thing you need to
consider is that by selling at an undervalue so ask your lawyer about
the implications. There could be an inheritance tax issue if you die
within 7 years of this. As the property is your main residence you need
not pay CGT but you should speak with your accountants in any event.
The mortgage over my property is with Scottish Widows. Conveyancing was finalised a year ago. In the event that I decide to rent out my property and do not currently have a buy-to-let mortgage do I need to remortgage to a BTL mortgage or inform Scottish Widows?
Your original mortgage agreement with Scottish Widows will provide that you need their approval before renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Scottish Widows’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Scottish Widows directly. You need not do this via a Scottish Widows conveyancing panel lawyer.
I recently had an offer accepted on a house. My mortgage broker suggested a solicitor I paid an upfront payment of 150. Soon after the conveyancers contacted me sheepishly admitting 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.
