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Ready to buy a new home? Failing to check that a lawyer is on the Family BS list of approved solicitors can put your transaction at risk of delay or failure.

Find an Approved Solicitor on the Family Building Society Conveyancing Panel

FAQs : The Family Building Society Solicitor Panel

The lawyer I wanted to use for conveyancing on a purchase said she would charge more if my lender is because of their unusual legal requirements. Am I likely to be frustrated using Family Building Society? Any comments will be appreciated
Family Building Society conveyancing requirements for their panel are no better or no more complicated than most lenders. It is the case now the CML Handbook, the "bible" used by solicitors to establish lender requirements, is different for each lender. It is not clear if your lawyer is on the Family Building Society conveyancing panel. If they are not, this does add further risk of delay as Family Building Society will appoint their own solicitors to look after their interest.
Please assist. For no fault of my lawyer but, my purchase conveyancing has been going on for months. The Local Authority Search from Family Building Society was dated random date and we have agreed a date for me to move into the property on 10 days inc Day of week eg. Mon. My lawyer informs me that as she is on the Family Building Society conveyancing panel she needs to reorder the searches as they are no longer valid.
A precondition to being on the Family Building Society approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Family Building Society)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 Family Building Society.
Having used your search tool I can't find the lawyer I was hoping to instruct as being on the Family Building Society conveyancing panel. My lawyer has said that they are on the Family Building Society approved panel. How can I be sure given that they are not listed on your directory?
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 Family Building Society 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 Family Building Society solicitor panel.
I am selling my house. Does my solicitor have to be on the Family Building Society conveyancing panel in order to deal with paying off my mortgage?
Ordinarily, even if your lawyer is not on the Family Building Society conveyancing panel they can still act for you on your sale. it might be that the lender will not release the original deeds (if applicable and increasingly irrelevant) until after the mortgage is paid off. You should speak to your lawyer directly before you start the process though to ensure that there is no problem as lenders are changing their requirements fairly frequently at the moment.
Do the majority of banks operate their own panel of solicitors?
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 Family Building Society conveyancing panel requirements are different to Family Building Society’s conveyancing panel criteria.
I was told four weeks ago that my mortgage has been agreed to by Family Building Society. Is it usual for Family Building Society to only issue the offer once my solicitor is approved on their conveyancing panel?
A lender would not issue a mortgage until they have details of a lawyer on their panel. It can take a few weeks for Family Building Society to deal with your lawyers application to be on the Family Building Society conveyancing panel. There's no guarantee that your solicitors will be accepted.
My ex -wife’s name is on the Family Building Society mortgage of my property but not on the land registry. The apartment was transferred to me on our divorce many years ago by way of a sealed court order. Does my ex still have a say on the sale even though the land registry showing the property in my name alone? Will I be required to take her name of the Family Building Society mortgage in order to sell?
In terms of the Family Building Society mortgage, it is unusual that your ex-wife’s name remains on the mortgage but not on the title. It is conceivable that this is an oversight on the part of your conveyancers to ensure that her name was removed or even an administrative error on the part of Family Building Society in failing to update their data. In any event, it should cause difficulty providing her name no longer appears on the Land Registry title and you have a court order ordering that the property is transferred to you.