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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 property lawyers should contact Birmingham Bank and see if they can apply for membership of the Birmingham Bank conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Birmingham Bank will instruct their own solicitors to act. You don't have to instruct a firm on the Birmingham Bank conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.

One of the many conditions to being on the Birmingham Bank approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook Part 2 obligations (last updated for this lender on Birmingham Bank)which states 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 Birmingham Bank.

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

There is nothing to stop you using your solicitor but Birmingham Bank will insist on their interests being represented by a firm on their conveyancing panel. There is greater potential for delays and confusion with an additional lawyer added to the mix, and it will undoubtedly be more expensive too.

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

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

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