Find a Law Firm
approved by ModaMortgages

The most common options here are as follows:

1. Carry on with your existing lawyers but ModaMortgages will need to instruct a lawyer on the ModaMortgages 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 ModaMortgages conveyancing panel.
3. Convince your lawyer to do everything within their powers to join the ModaMortgages conveyancing panel

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

You can use the find a conveyancing panel search on this website. 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 ModaMortgages solicitor panel.

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

On the whole there are no requirements by lenders for their firms to operate on a no-sale-no-fee basis. There a small number of lenders who operate a very restricted conveyancing panel managed by a third party company (often termed in the industry as a ‘gatekeeper’). That third party may impose certain conditions such as non-sale-no fee on the panel firms. If you require this as a condition of your conveyancing then you should check with the conveyancing firm that this is part of their package

ModaMortgages must be informed of your intention before renting your property as this is likely to be a breach of ModaMortgages’s mortgage conditions. In many cases banks or building societies will permit you to let 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 ModaMortgages directly. It should not be necessary to do this via a ModaMortgages conveyancing panel solicitor.

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