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FAQs : The Whistletree Conveyancing Panel
I was advised recently by my financial adviser that my solicitor is not on the Whistletree Conveyancing panel. How can I check?
The best course of action for you to take is to contact your conveyancer. You lawyer should advise you of the situation. If they are not on the panel they could put your in touch with solicitors on the the approved Whistletree solicitor panel.
My fiance and I changing mortgage lender for our apartment with Whistletree. We have a son 19 who lives with us. The solicitor on the Whistletree conveyancing panel requested us to identify anyone over the age of 17 other than ourselves who reside at the property. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, waiving any legal rights in the event that the property is repossessed. I have a couple of concerns (1) Is this form unique to the Whistletree conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we bought 5 years ago (2) In signing this form is our son in any way compromising his right to inherit the property?
On the face of it your lawyer has done nothing wrong 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 Whistletree .This is solely used to protect the Whistletree 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 Whistletree 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.
Are there any apps to help search for a local solicitor on the Whistletree conveyancing panel? I have a car and am prepared to travel up to 25 kilometers to meet the conveyancer.
You can use the find a conveyancing panel tool 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 Whistletree solicitor panel.
The lawyers that I appointed last week on my house acquisition in Manchester has without warning shut down. I only went with them because I had to have a firm on the Whistletree conveyancing panel and my preferred lawyer was not. I gave them a cheque for £150 in advance. What are my options?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them straight away so that they advise the vendors that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Whistletree conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new solicitors may be able to help
In what circumstances might Whistletree amend or withdraw their mortgage offer?
Lenders such as Whistletree can withdraw their mortgage offer although this rarely happens. should Whistletree withdraw their offer they may or may not inform you or the lawyer as to their reasoning. There are various possible reasons but here are a number of examples:
- Many mortgage offers have an expiry date. Your lawyer should check this. Whistletree may amend or withdraw an offer before the end of its validation period if an offer extension is requested and following a re-evaluation of the property the value of the security is below a level which is acceptable to them.
- 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
- Where to proceed with the Mortgage offer would be unlawful
- Following advice from the valuer on their lender panel or If the lender has doubts about the effectiveness of the valuation as a result of subsequent events or information received post valuation but pre completion
- Where the sale is not at arms length for value to unconnected persons
I have not been happy with the level or service received from my lawyer. Is there a Whistletree conveyancing panel complaints department or do I complain directly to the law firm?
Complaining to Whistletree about their conveyancing panel is unlikely to yield much of a response. Every solicitor firm and conveyancer must have a complaints procedure. Usually one can find this information from the solicitor’s or conveyancer’s website or ask at their office. They must tell you about it if you ask.
The Legal Ombudsman will make sure that your complaint is addressed by the solicitor. It can also advise you how to complain.
If a licensed conveyancer does not have a complaints procedure or will not tell you about it, contact the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), which will make sure that your complaint is properly dealt with by the conveyancer. Please see below for more information.
At last I have had an offer on an apartment accepted, the seller does however have a dependent purchase. The vendors have offered on somewhere, but not been accepted yet, and have viewings of other properties booked. My conveyancing solicitor has been instructed. What should be my next step? When should I get the mortgage app going with Whistletree?
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 Whistletree 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 Whistletree and pay for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they pay their solicitor to press on with searches.
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