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Ready to buy a new home? Failing to check that a lawyer is on the Scottish Widows list of approved solicitors can put your transaction at risk of delay or failure.
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Scottish Widows Conveyancing Panel : Questions and Answers
What is the rationale as to why all property lawyers are not on the Scottish Widows Conveyancing panel?
Scottish Widows and other mortgage companies tend to imposes restrictions either the type or the number of conveyancing practices on their approved list of lawyers. Typical examples of such restriction(s) being that a firm must have two or more partners. In addition to restricting the type of firm, some have decided to limit the number of firms they use to represent them. You should note that Scottish Widows have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of Scottish Widows Conveyancer Panel. Mortgage fraud was a key driver in the rationalisation of conveyancing panels a few years ago and whilst there are differing views about the extent of solicitor involvement in some of that fraud. Statistics from the Land Registry reveal that thousands of law firms only carry out one or two conveyances a year. Those supporting conveyancing panel cuts ask why law firms should have the right to be on a Lender panel when clearly, Conveyancing is not their speciality? To put it another way; would you want a conveyancing solicitor to represent you if you were charged with a crime; probably not.
My grandson is in the process of securing a new build apartment with a home loan from Scottish Widows. His conveyancer has said that there is a delay in completing the ‘Disclosure of Incentive Form’. What is this document - I have never come across this before?
The form is intended to provide information to the main parties engaged in the transaction. Therefore, it will be provided to your son’s lawyer who should be on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel as a standard part of the process, and to the valuer when requested.
The Developer will be required to start the process by downloading the form and completing it.
The form will therefore need to be available for the valuer at the time of his or her site visit. The form should be sent to the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel solicitor as early as possible, in order to avoid any last minute delays, and no later than at exchange of contracts.
I note that you have a post code search directory identifying law firms on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel. Do firms pay you a commission if I appoint them for my own house purchase?
We are a listing service only for law firms wishing to communicate if they are on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel or other lender panels. We do not charge referral fees to the any conveyancer that you subsequently appoint.
The solicitors that just started acting on my purchase in Brighton has suddenly closed. They were on acting for me because I had to have a lawyer on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel and my previous lawyer was not. I gave them a cheque for £150 in advance. What should be my next steps?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then let them know immediately 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 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 solicitors may be able to help
We expect to receive a DIP from Scottish Widows this week so we can work out what to offer on a property we like as otherwise we only have online calculators to go by (which aren't taking into account credit checks etc).Do the Scottish Widows recommend a solicitor on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel, or is it better to go independently
You will need to appoint solicitors independently although you'll need to choose one on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel. The solicitor represents both you and the Scottish Widows through the process.
I am due to exchange contracts on my house. I had a double glazing fitted in month 6 but did not receive a FENSA certificate or Building Regulation Certificate. My purchaser’s lender, Scottish Widows are being problematic. The solicitor who is on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel is saying indemnity insurance will be fine but Scottish Widows are insisting on a building regulation certificate. Why do Scottish Widows have a conveyancing panel of they don’t accept advice from them?
It is probably the case that Scottish Widows have referred the matter to their valuer. The reason why Scottish Widows may not want to accept indemnity insurance is because it does not give them any reassurance that the double glazing correctly and safely installed. It merely protects against enforcement action which is very unlikely anyway.
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?
As regards 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.