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If you haven't yet instructed a solicitor to do anything for you and have just received quotes, you're perfectly free to choose a different solicitor to carry out your work for you. The best way is to get recommendations from friends or family who have actually used the solicitor or conveyancer you're considering.

Anti-terror and anti-money-laundering rules require solicitors and licensed conveyancers to verify the identity of the person or body they are dealing with before they can accept their conveyancing business. The Terms and Conditions that you need to sign will no doubt confirm this. Your lawyer is right that Better HomeOwnership also require certain documents to be viewed. If a you refuse to provide ID verification documents, your conveyancer would not be able to accept instructions from you. Your lawyer also has obligations to obtain certain documents in accordance with Better HomeOwnership CML Handbook requirements last updated on Better HomeOwnership

Unfortunately it’s not apparent why you need a Better HomeOwnership panel solicitor but in any event, if you can not find one on our search tool you will need to speak directly to Better HomeOwnership to find out which solicitors in Better HomeOwnership are on their panel. If you do find such a firm not listed please direct them to our site to list. After all the cost is only one £1 a month

If you have an estate agent involved then let them know immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to reasons beyond your control. Hopefully they will 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 Better HomeOwnership 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

We are not aware of any lender fees to be on their panel although some do charge an administration charge to deal with the processing of the conveyancing panel application.

Lenders such as Better HomeOwnership can revoke their mortgage offer although this is unusual. should Better HomeOwnership withdraw their offer they may or may not inform you or the lawyer as to their reasoning. There are various possible reasons but here are 5 examples:

• If the borrower informs Better HomeOwnership of a change in the loan amount agreed

• Situations where information provided by the borrower that enabled the lender to make a lending decision is fraudulent, incorrect or misleading.

• Following advice from the valuer on their lender panel or If the lender has doubts about the effectiveness of the valuation as a result of subsequent events or information received post valuation but pre completion

• Where the lender has to take account a recent change in law

• Where the sale is not at arms length for value to unconnected persons

In terms of the Better HomeOwnership 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 Better HomeOwnership 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.