Find a Lawyer on the Hodge Life Conveyancing Panel

Feel free to make use of the find a conveyancing panel tool on this page. Please choose the lender and your location and you will see a number of lawyer located nearest you. Alternatively you can type in the name of your proposed law firm and see if they are listed as being on the Hodge Life solicitor panel.

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

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 Hodge Life 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 Hodge Life solicitor panel.

We do not recommend specific firms as the right firm for you depends on where your priorities lie. For example you may require a local firm with local knowledge or you might be looking for the low cost conveyancing. We recommend that you speak to 3 or 4 lawyers listed before you make your choice..

Unfortunately it's not apparent why you need a Hodge Life panel solicitor but in any event, if you can not find one on our search tool you will need to speak directly to Hodge Life to find out which solicitors in Hodge Life 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

The most common options here are as follows:

1. Complete the purchase with your existing solicitors but Hodge Life will need to instruct a lawyer on the Hodge Life conveyancing panel. This will result in additional cost and potential delay.
2. Get a new solicitor to act in the purchase, obviously checking they are on the Hodge Life conveyancing panel.
3. Urge your lawyer to apply to join the Hodge Life lender panel

Hodge Life and other lenders normally restrict either the type or the number of conveyancing firms on their panel. A common example 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 Hodge Life have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of Hodge Life 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.

Lenders have always had panels of law firms they are willing to work with, but in the past few years big names such as Santander, have reviewed and reduced their conveyancing panel– in some cases removing conveyancing firms who have worked with them for more than 25 years.

Lenders blame a rise in fraud as the reason for the cull – criteria have been tightened and a smaller panel should be easier to keep an eye on. No lender will say how many solicitors have been dropped, claiming the information is commercially sensitive, but the Law Society says it is hearing daily from firms that have been removed from panels, or have other concerns about them. Some do not even realise they have been dropped until contacted by a borrower who has instructed them as might be the situation in your buyer's case. Your purchasers are unlikely to have any sway in the decision.

You are best placed to get this information from your conveyancing lawyer. They should have a central record lender panel numbers including the Hodge Life panel reference.

No, not really. The mortgage offered to you is subject to its terms and conditions, one of which will be that lawyers will on the Hodge Life conveyancing panel. Until recently, most lenders had large numbers of law firms on their panels: a borrower could choose one for themselves, as long as it was on the lender's panel. The lender would then simply instruct the borrower's lawyers to act for the lender, too. You can use your lender's panel lawyers or you could borrow from another lender which does not restrict your choice. Another option that might be available is for your lawyer to apply to be on the conveyancing panel for Hodge Life

Hodge Life conveyancing requirements for their panel are no better or no more complicated than most lenders. It is the case now the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook, the "bible" used by solicitors to establish lender requirements, is different for each lender. It is not clear if your lawyer is on the Hodge Life conveyancing panel. If they are not, this does add further risk of delay as Hodge Life will appoint their own solicitors to look after their interest.

Hodge Life's conveyancing panel is pretty large so your best bet is just to check with the firms you are getting quotes from whether they are on it. You can search by postcode on the search tool on this site to find solicitors that Hodge Life will allow to act for them.

Unfortunately both you and your lawyer have little choice here. As you are taking a mortgage with Hodge Life your lawyer has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook. Your lawyer would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of Hodge Life's conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to follow the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook requirements last updated Hodge Life. even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out a local authority search.

The short answer to your last question is that, notwithstanding the potential for a conflict of interest, you and Hodge Life are the client. A precondition to being on the Hodge Life approved panel is to comply with the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Hodge Life). The UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook conditions require your lawyer to disclose issues such as defects will the lease so that Hodge Life can be afforded the opportunity to check with their valuer as to the extent that the value of the property is affected. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your lawyer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.

A precondition to being on the Hodge Life approved panel is to comply with the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Hodge Life) which do require that your lawyer disclose any incorrect assumptions in the lender's valuation report and the legal papers. Should you refuse to allow your lawyer to make the appropriate notification then your lawyer will have no choice but to discontinue acting for you.

Any lawyer on the Hodge Life 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 Hodge Life's Part 2 requirements of the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook (last updated on Hodge Life). Being on the Hodge Life conveyancing panel your lawyer is expect to follow these requirements.

Your lawyer is obliged to check with Hodge Life to make sure that they are aware that the balance of the purchase price is not from your own funds. Your solicitor can only report this to Hodge Life if you agree, failing which, your lawyer must cease to continue acting.

First, rest assured that your Hodge Life conveyancing panel solicitor is doing the right thing as it is established procedure for any occupier who is aged 17 or over to sign the necessary Consent Form, which is purely to state that any rights he has in the property are postponed and secondary to Hodge Life.This is solely used to protect the Hodge Life if the property were re-possessed so that in such circumstances, your son would be legally obliged to leave.

It does not impact your son's right to inherit the apartment. Please note that if your son were to inherit and the mortgage in favour of Hodge Life had not been discharged, he would be liable to take over the loan or pay it off, but other than that, there is nothing stopping him from keeping the property in accordance with your will or the rules of intestacy.

As a firm of solicitors, in order to be on the Hodge Life conveyancing panel they would need to be regulated by the SRA. Many lenders do allow licenced conveyancers on their panel in which case such firms would be regulated by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC).

Getting recommendations is a good start. Before you go ahead check if they offer a no sale no fee offer. Also you often get what you pay for - a firm which quotes more will often provide a better service than one which is cheap as chips. We would always recommend that you speak with the lawyer handling your transaction

Hodge Life will only instruct licensed conveyancers or solicitor firms that are on their conveyancing panel. If you want your solicitor firm to be admitted onto the Hodge Life conveyancing panel, they must apply to Hodge Life directly and meet the lender's panel criteria.

Many lenders operate a restricted conveyancing panel, while others allow any solicitor to join so long as they meet the lender's criteria. Each lender sets its own requirements. For example, the Hodge Life conveyancing panel requirements differ from those of other lenders.

Hodge Life would not normally instruct a member of their conveyancing panel to deal with such a matter. If they did require any legal work then you would need to ensure that such a lawyer was on the Hodge Life list

As you are obtaining a mortgage with Hodge Life your lawyer must to check the Hodge Life conveyancing instructions contained in the Part 2 of the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook for Hodge Life. The UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook contains minimum requirements for solar panel roof-space leases, and solicitors are required to report to Hodge Life where a lease does not meet these requirements. The requirements relate to the installation of panels on properties in England and Wales. UK Finance are developing guidance for Northern Ireland and Scotland.

If you are getting a mortgage with Hodge Life involved you will need to appoint a solicitor on the Hodge Life conveyancing panel. We would not encourage you to both use the same solicitors' firm. There are clear conflict of interest issues and it's not going to make a huge difference to the speed of the overall process. So as not to hold things us you should pass on your solicitors details to Hodge Life. Feel free to use our search tool to look for a licensed conveyancer or solicitor on the Hodge Life conveyancing panel.

Where information comes to Hodge Life 's attention regarding the customers or the security that they were not aware of prior to offer that affects their original decision to lend

Ask Hodge Life for conveyancing panel firms in your area. Lenders have them all over the country. You can also use our search tool at the top of this page to search for a lawyer on the Hodge Life conveyancing panel based on location. If you particularly like the sound of one of the local lawyers that you have spoken to ask them if they would go onto Hodge Life conveyancing panel as it may only take about 2-3 weeks. As long as they meet Hodge Life's requirements it can be a very simple job for the solicitor. Other stuff will be going on in parallel (as you are at an early stage) so it may not delay matters.

Hodge Life must be informed of your intention before renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of Hodge Life's mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will allow you to rent out your former home without needing to switch to a buy-to-let mortgage but some lenders will add a surcharge to your mortgage rate to reflect the higher risk. You should contact Hodge Life directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a Hodge Life conveyancing panel solicitor.

There is little point in complaining directly to Hodge Life. All solicitors and conveyancer must have a complaints procedure. You can get information from the solicitor's or conveyancer's website or ask at their office. They must tell you about it if you ask.

The Legal Ombudsman will make sure that your complaint is properly dealt with by the solicitor. It can also advise you how to complain.

If a licensed conveyancer does not have a complaints procedure or will not tell you about it, contact the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), which will make sure that your complaint is properly dealt with by the conveyancer. Please see below for more information.

As long as the conveyancer is on the Hodge Life panel she or he must comply with the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook requirements for Hodge Life. Unless your lawyer obtains specific confirmation in writing that Hodge Life will go ahead your lawyer has no choice but to refrain from exchanging contract and committing you to the purchase. We would suggest that you ask Hodge Life to contact your lawyer in writing confirming that they will accept the remaining number of years left on the lease.

You should be able to recover this from the law firm if they were not on the Hodge Life 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.

It is probably the case that Hodge Life have referred the matter to their valuer. The reason why Hodge Life 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.

Mortgage companies tend not to not issue an offer until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Hodge Life to deal with your lawyers application to be on the Hodge Life conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitors will be accepted.

In terms of the Hodge Life 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 Hodge Life 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.

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 Hodge Life 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 Hodge Life and pay for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they pay their solicitor to press on with searches.

Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Hodge Life conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. it might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their requirements fairly frequently at the moment.

You can use any solicitor you like but Hodge Life then has the right to appoint a different solicitor to act for them at your expense. It might be more cost effective and quicker to instruct a lawyer who is on the Hodge Life solicitors panel

This is a rare situation indeed. The majority of lender Terms of Conveyancing Panel Appointment specifically oblige the solicitor to inform the lender of an address change. Your solicitor needs to treat this with the utmost urgency. Do speak with or register your concern with the senior partner (assuming he or she is not your direct lawyer). Most lenders would be reasonable in this situation and expedite the resolution of this issue. It may be prudent to enlist the help of your local Hodge Life branch or your mortgage broker to see if they can assist.

If you have an estate agent involved then let them know straight away 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 Hodge Life 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 lawyers may be able to assist

If you intend to re-mortgage then Hodge Life will insist on your using a conveyancer on the Hodge Life 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 Hodge Life 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 Hodge Life mortgage is registered as a charge at the Land Registry.