Find a Law Firm approved by Intelligent Finance

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 Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitors should contact Intelligent Finance and see if they can apply for membership of the Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Intelligent Finance will instruct their own solicitors to act. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it will likely delay the transaction as you have another set of people involved.

One of the many conditions to being on the Intelligent Finance approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Intelligent Finance)which specifies that a local authority search be not more than 6 months old. You should nevertheless ask your lawyer to check whether something called ‘search validation’ indemnity insurance is acceptable to Intelligent Finance.

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 Intelligent Finance 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 Intelligent Finance solicitor panel.

If you have an estate agent involved then inform them immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. 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 Intelligent Finance 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 assist

Many lenders do operate a restricted conveyancing panel but a lot of lenders allow any solicitors to join their panel so long as they meet their criteria. Each lender sets their own criteria. For example the Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel requirements are different to Intelligent Finance’s conveyancing panel requirements.

Some lenders take longer than others. Have Intelligent Finance done the survey? Have you advised Intelligent Finance as your lawyers details and checked that your lawyer is on the Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel? sometimes it can take as long as six weeks for a mortgage offer to be issued

Intelligent Finance must be informed of your intention in advance of letting out your property as this is likely to be a breach of Intelligent Finance’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 Intelligent Finance directly. You need not do this via a Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel firm.