Q and A’s regarding the Swansea Building Society Conveyancing Panel from members of the public
I appointed a firm of solicitors to carry out on my house purchase three weeks ago having applied for a mortgage with Swansea Building Society. The law firm reassured me that they are on Swansea Building Society conveyancing panel and provided me their panel number. Swansea Building Society then called me to say that their panel number was dormant and would need to be reactivated. What do I do from here? Do I instruct a different law firm currently on the approved panel for Swansea Building Society?
You may be very frustrated with the lawyer but if it only go take a few more days they it may be worth waiting as, depending on how far progressed you are you may end up delaying the transaction by a number of weeks if you need to replace your solicitor You may wish to enlist the help of your broker to check with the Swansea Building Society as to the time frame to get your lawyer reinstated on the panel once again.
My fiance and I are refinancing our flat with Swansea Building Society. We have a son approaching twenty who lives with us. The solicitor on the Swansea Building Society conveyancing panel requested us to identify anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who lives in the flat. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the flat is repossessed. I have a couple of questions (1) Is this form unique to the Swansea Building Society conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we bought 3 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?
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 Swansea Building Society .This is solely used to protect the Swansea 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 Swansea 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.
Do all the firms listed on your directory have online case tracking as I was under the impression that this was a precondition of being on the Swansea Building Society solicitor panel?
The Council of Mortgage Lenders or BSA do not require online case tracking. Some law firms operate such technology and some don't.
The solicitors that just started acting on my purchase in Newcastle has without warning closed. I only went with them because I needed a firm on the Swansea Building Society conveyancing panel and my family lawyer was not. I paid them £200 on account. 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. Most sellers would 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 Swansea Building Society 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 should be in a position to help
Is the case that all CQS (Conveyancing Quality Scheme) solicitors on the Swansea Building Society conveyancing panel?
It is true that some banks and building societies now use the accreditation scheme as the starting point for Panel membership such as HSBC and Santander. CQS accreditation however gives no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. That being said,the CML have indicated that it is likely to become a pre-requisite for firms wishing to remain on their approved list of conveyancing solicitors.
Can you point me to a directory of Swansea Building Society panel solicitors on the Building Society Association’s Website?
No. There is no such tool on the Council of Mortgage Lenders or Building Society Association websites. Very few lenders make their panel listings available online.
Planning on purchasing a house with a mortgage with Swansea Building Society. I have received an online quote from a licensed conveyancer, which states: "There will be no charge for dealing with the Lender if you are obtaining a mortgage". I take this to mean that there will be no additional fee if the solicitor is on the Swansea Building Society conveyancing panel. I wanted to make sure it means there will be no additional fees for dealing with the mortgage.
They are simply saying that the cost for acting for the lender is included in the fee being quoted. It is worth you checking that they are on the Swansea Building Society conveyancing panel