FAQs : The The Chorley & District Building Society Conveyancing Panel from members of the public
My partner and I are FTBs. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with a view to exchanging next week. The Chorley & District Building Society have this evening contacted us to inform me that there is now an issue as our lawyer is not on their approved list of lawyers. What do we do from here?
If you are buying a property with the assistance 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 Quality Scheme. Your property lawyers should contact The Chorley & District Building Society and see if they can apply for membership of the The Chorley & District Building Society conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable The Chorley & District Building Society will instruct their own solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the The Chorley & District Building Society conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
I am due to move into my new home next Friday. My conveyancing lawyer has asked me to provide him with a copy of the building insurance for the house as as he informs me that he is duty bound to validate that it is in order for The Chorley & District Building Society. What does the insurance need to cover?
All property lawyers on the The Chorley & District Building Society conveyancing panel would need to check that the following risks are covered fire; lightning; aircraft; explosion; earthquake; storm; flood; escape of water or oil; riot; malicious damage; theft or attempted theft; falling trees and branches and aerials; subsidence; heave;landslip;collision;accidental damage to underground services;professional fees, demolition and site clearance costs; and public liability to anyone else. There are some other issues such as the level of excess that are set out in The Chorley & District Building Society’s Part 2 requirements of the CML Handbook (last updated on The Chorley & District Building Society). Being on the The Chorley & District Building Society conveyancing panel your lawyer is expect to follow these requirements.
Do banks and building societies provide you with an approved list of solicitors? How do you know who is on the The Chorley & District Building Society conveyancing panel?
The law firm practices themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the The Chorley & District Building Society conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from The Chorley & District Building Society directly.
We're in Birmingham, FTBs purchasing with a mortgage (lender is The Chorley & District Building Society , but our solicitor is on the The Chorley & District Building Society conveyancing panel). How long should the conveyancing process take?
The fact that your lawyer is on the The Chorley & District Building Society conveyancing panel is a help. It would almost certainly delay matters if they were not. However, no conveyancer should guarantee a time-frame for your conveyancing due to third parties outside of our control such as delays caused by lenders,conveyancing search providers or by the other side’s solicitors. The time taken is often determined by the number of parties in a chain
I have paid off my mortgage with The Chorley & District Building Society. I assume I don't need a solicitor on the The Chorley & District Building Society panel to remove the mortgage at the Land Registry. Please confirm
If you have finished paying off your The Chorley & District Building Society mortgage they may send you evidence showing that you have paid it off. Alternatively they may notify the Land Registry directly. The Land Registry need to see this evidence before they will remove the The Chorley & District Building Society mortgage from the register. The Chorley & District Building Society,and any evidence they send you, will determine the action you need to take. In cases where no conveyancer is acting for you and you have paid off your mortgage:
but are not moving to another property
where the The Chorley & District Building Society has sent the Land Registry the discharge electronically, and
the The Chorley & District Building Society has instructed the Land Registry to do so
The Land Registry will send you a letter confirming that your The Chorley & District Building Society mortgage has been paid off.
I recently had an offer accepted on an apartment. My mortgage broker pressured me to appoint their lawyers I paid an upfront payment of 150. Soon after the conveyancers contacted me sheepishly admitting that they were not on the The Chorley & District Building Society 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 The Chorley & District Building Society 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, the seller does however have a dependent purchase. The vendors have offered on somewhere, but not been accepted yet, and have viewings of other properties booked. My conveyancing solicitor has been instructed. What should be my next step? At what point should I appy for the mortgage with The Chorley & District Building Society?
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 The Chorley & District Building Society 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 The Chorley & District Building Society and pay for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they pay their solicitor to press on with searches.