Scottish Widows Solicitor Panel Recently Asked Questions from members of the public
I have been advised by my broker that I have to pay Scottish Widows fees if I use my own solicitor. How efficient are the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel solicitors? I dont care which law firm I use provided that they are good and reasonably priced. Would you recommend a specific law firm on the Scottish Widows panel?
Scottish Widows’s conveyancing panel is substantial so it would be advisable to check with the firms you are getting quotes from whether they are on it. You can search by postcode on the search tool on this site to find solicitors that Scottish Widows will allow to act for them.
I am buying a newly built apartment and my lawyer is advising me that she is duty bound to reveal incentives from the seller as her firm is on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel. The Estate Agents are hassling me to sign contracts and my preference is not to prolong the conveyancing. is my lawyer taking the correct approach?
You should not exchange unless you have advised to do so by your lawyer. A precondition to being on the Scottish Widows approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Scottish Widows). The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.
I am searching for conveyancing quotes online. Can I be sure that all the practices that are identified on your site are on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel?
The solicitor and licensed conveyancing practices listed on our site have assured us via an online form that they are on the Scottish Widows panel and agreed to advise us to take down their listing in the event of removal off of the Scottish Widows panel. To date we have not been informed by either a bank or a member of the public that the data about a specific firm being on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel is incorrect.
The lawyers that I appointed last week on my purchase in London has without warning closed. I only went with them because I had to have a firm 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 immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should 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
Do the majority of 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 Scottish Widows conveyancing panel requirements are different to Scottish Widows’s conveyancing panel criteria.
I recently had an offer accepted on a house. My financial adviser pressured me to appoint their lawyers I paid an upfront payment of 225. 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.
At last I have had an offer on an apartment accepted, but there is a chain. The vendors have offered on somewhere, but not been accepted yet, and have viewings of other properties in the pipeline. My conveyancing solicitor has been instructed. What should be my next step? When should I get the mortgage app going with Scottish Widows?
It is usual to have concerns where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket too early (mortgage application is approx £1k, then survey/valuation, conveyancing search costs, etc). First you should check that your solicitor is on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel. As to the next stages this very much depends on the circumstances of your case, desire for this property and on the state of the market. In a hot mortgage some buyers would pally for the mortgage with Scottish Widows and pay for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they pay their solicitor to press on with searches.