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As unjust as it may seem for Ahli United Bank to restrict who can act for them from the public’s or solicitor’s point of view, the other side of the coin is that the lenders are becoming ever more anxious and feel the necessary need to protect them from mortgage fraud and other illegal activities. As a result of this concern Ahli United Bank are limiting their conveyancing panel to a size that they are happy to control. The Ahli United Bank lawyer panel is not the most difficult to join

You should not exchange unless you have advised to do so by your lawyer. A precondition to being on the Ahli United Bank approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Ahli United Bank). The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.

We are a listing service only for law firms wishing to communicate if they are on the Ahli United Bank conveyancing panel or other lender panels. We do not charge referral fees to the any conveyancer that you subsequently appoint.

If you have an estate agent involved then let them know straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Most sellers would 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 Ahli United Bank 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 should be in a position to help

It is not advisable proceed with a house purchase without a solicitor. The council's solicitor are not acting for you. You need a solicitor for a number reasons. One of which is to verify what plans the Council have for repairs and refurbishment for the next five years. Many leaseholders have been stung for contributions of thousands of pounds. In any event if you are getting a mortgage with Ahli United Bank you will need to appoint a solicitor on the Ahli United Bank conveyancing panel.

Ahli United Bank will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Ahli United Bank 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 Ahli United Bank you could contact your them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors.

In terms of the Ahli United Bank 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 Ahli United Bank 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.