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Teachers Building Society and other lenders normally restrict either the type or the number of conveyancing practices on their approved list of lawyers. 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 Teachers Building Society have no responsibility for the quality of advice provided by any member of Teachers Building Society 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.

You have limited options available to you. As you are taking a mortgage with Teachers Building Society your lawyer has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your lawyer would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of Teachers Building Society’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to follow the CML Handbook requirements last updated Teachers Building Society. even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out a local authority search.

Most conveyancing panel lawyers for Teachers Building Society undertake all of the work via the post, internet or over the phone. This means that they can undertake your Conveyancing Transaction no matter where you live in England or Wales. However you should check if you can still book an appointment to go into appointed conveyancing lawyer if you prefer.

Different lenders have different requirements 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 Teachers Building Society Conveyancing Panel Terms. It might be worth you contacting Teachers Building Society directly.

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.

As a firm of solicitors, in order to be on the Teachers Building Society 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).

Lenders such as Teachers Building Society can withdraw their mortgage offer although this rarely happens. In the unlikely event that Teachers Building Society withdraw their offer they may or may not inform you or the lawyer as to the reasons why. There are various possible reasons but here are a number of examples:

• Where information comes to Teachers Building Society ‘s attention regarding the customers or the security that they were not aware of prior to offer that affects their original decision to lend

• Amendments if purchase price adjusted and the loan to value limits exceeded by this. Please note that Teachers Building Society conveyancing panel solicitors would be obliged to notify Teachers Building Society of a change in the price of the property.

• A cashback to the buyer, or | part of the price includes a non-cash incentive to the buyer (eg paid stamp duty land tax),or | any indirect incentive (cash or non cash) or rental guarantee, of which the lender was previously unaware