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Conveyancing Panel
FAQs : The Santander Conveyancing Panel
My fiance and I are novices when it comes to buying a property. Within the last couple of days our conveyancer has sent a preliminary report and documents to look through with the expectation that exchange is imminent. Santander have this morning contacted us to advise us that there is now an issue as our solicitor is not on their conveyancing panel. Is this a problem?
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 Quality Scheme.
Your solicitors should contact Santander and see if they can apply for membership of the Santander conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Santander will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the Santander conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred lawyers, in which case your legal fees may increase, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
My fiance and I changing mortgage lender for our maisonette with Santander. We have a son 18 who lives with us. The solicitor on the Santander conveyancing panel requested us to identify anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. The solicitor has now sent a form for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the apartment is forfeited by the lender. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Santander conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 3 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Santander 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 Santander .This is solely used to protect the Santander 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 Santander 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.
I have been Googling for online conveyancing estimates. Can I be assured that all the law firms that are listed on your directory are on the Santander conveyancing panel?
The law firms on our directory have assured us via an online form that they are on the Santander panel and agreed to advise us to take down their listing in the event of removal off of the Santander panel. To date we have not been informed by either a lender or a member of the public that the data about a specific firm being on the Santander conveyancing panel is not accurate.
My conveyancers in Birmingham have advised me that no longer have my conveyancing file. At the time of my purchase I took out a mortgage with Santander. Is it case that being on the Santander conveyancing panel they need to have retained the file for a prescribed period?
It very much depends from lender to lender but many of the Terms and Conditions of Conveyancing Panel Appointment require the file to be held for a period of 6 years. That being said we have not seen a copy of the Santander Conveyancing Panel Terms. It might be worth you contacting Santander directly.
How can we tell if a solicitor on the Santander panel is any good?
seeking 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 advocate that you speak with the solicitor carrying out your conveyancing
Two weeks ago we had a mortgage agreed in principle with Santander. Solicitors have been instructed? How long does it take for Santander to send the offer to our conveyancer
There is no definitive answer here. Have Santander completed the valuation? Have you advised Santander as your lawyers details and checked that your lawyer is on the Santander conveyancing panel? It is not unusual for a mortgage offer to take a month to come through
We were going to get a DIP from Santander this week so we know how much we could potentially offer as otherwise we only have online calculators to go by (which aren't taking into account credit checks etc).Do the Santander recommend a solicitor on the Santander conveyancing panel, or is it better to go independently
You will need to appoint solicitors independently although you'll need to choose one on the Santander conveyancing panel. The solicitor represents both you and the Santander through the process.