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When purchasing a property with the benefit 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 Precise Mortgages and see if they can apply for membership of the Precise Mortgages conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Precise Mortgages will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the Precise Mortgages conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

Your lawyer being on the Precise Mortgages conveyancing panel is duty bound to inform Precise Mortgages of any changes to the purchase price. If you were to refuse your lawyers to disclose the reduction to Precise Mortgages then they would have to discontinue acting for you and Precise Mortgages.

Not all firms are yet listed on our lender panel search tool which is still relatively new. Law firms are listing on a daily basis and it is probably the case that your lawyer is on the Precise Mortgages conveyancing lawyer and you should probably take them at their word. Please do feel free to suggest that they completing their listing on our site as it would only cost them £1 a month to list themselves as being on the Precise Mortgages solicitor panel.

If you intend to re-mortgage then Precise Mortgages will insist on your using a conveyancer on the Precise Mortgages conveyancing panel. Here is link to the Land Registry online guidance around what to do when a property owner dies. This will help you to understand the registration process behind changing the details re the registered title. in your case it would appear that you are effectively purchasing the property from the estate. Your Precise Mortgages conveyancing panel solicitor pays the new mortgage money into the estate, the estate pays off the old mortgage, the charge is released and you become the owner and the Precise Mortgages mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.

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.

All lenders have complaints procedures. Your first point of contact should be one of the Precise Mortgages branches or the Customer Services Department at Precise Mortgages head office. In most cases complaints to Precise Mortgages are sorted out effectively and efficiently. If you feel that the matter is not resolved you can write to the Financial Ombudsman Service at South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR who will take matters further.

Precise Mortgages will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Precise Mortgages will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. You may wish to consider appointing your own surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller. or Your lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Precise Mortgages you could contact your them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors.