Q: We have just heard we cannot use the solisitors we want (the cheapest) because they havent got a price packages and our mortgage company by using it, unless they belong to one! So now they are sending a check using the search fees that I have paid for this morning. and we must find one another.
Anyone had seen this before?
When people contact me for a conveyancing quote I take the trouble to ask who their lender is going to be and if it looks as if it could be one that will cause this difficulty I warn them in advance. Otherwise in some cases, if I do work on a file and then further down the track it becomes apparent that I can't act for the lender the client has a choice of staying with me to act for them and paying the extra for the lender's own solicitor or I charge them for the work I've done up to that point and they go somewhere else but still get charged for the whole job, so either way they are worse off. If I tell them at the beginning then they can find another local solicitor who can also act for their lender and will do a decent job and not be too expensive.
This does mean I sometimes lose the business, but at least if I explain that I am actually trying to save them cost and delay, they are usually happy and they may tell their friends about "that solicitor who told me to go somewhere else because it wasn't in their best interests to use him." Having a second solicitor adds to the costs and they usually ask a set of extra unnecessary questions, which just delays things. It is also hassle that i can do without.
As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients.
I just dug my heels in and said that if my lender wouldn't use the solicitor in question, it was their problem and I wasn't paying a penny more. There are lots more lenders out there….!
My solicitor said it had happened to her before and there was a firm up the road from her who was a partnership, and therefore acceptable to the lender. This firm were quite used to dealing with this sort of thing and it took about a day longer to sort out.
I honestly can't remember whether or not I ended up paying anything more, but I did go into my Building Society and complain quite loudly, so they may well have borne the cost to shut me up :rolleyes: If there was an extra cost, it was more than offset by the low price my own solicitor charged.