Find a Law Firm
approved by Cumberland BS

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

Find an Approved Solicitor on the Cumberland Building Society Conveyancing Panel

FAQs for the Cumberland Building Society Conveyancing Panel

Can you please explain the reason why all solicitors are not on the Cumberland Building Society Conveyancing panel?
Even though it may seem unfair for Cumberland Building Society to restrict who can act for them from the public’s or solicitor’s point of view, the other side of the coin is that the lenders are becoming ever more anxious and feel the necessary need to protect them from mortgage fraud and other illegal activities. As a result of this concern Cumberland Building Society are limiting their panel of approved conveyancing lawyers to a manageable size. The Cumberland Building Society lawyer panel is not the most exclusive of all lenders
My wife and I are refinancing our flat with Cumberland Building Society. We have a son 18 who lives with us. The solicitor on the Cumberland Building Society conveyancing panel has asked us to disclose any adults other than ourselves who reside at the property. Our lawyer has now e-mailed a document for our son to sign, giving up any rights in the event that the property is forfeited by the lender. I have two questions (1) Is this form unique to the Cumberland Building Society conveyancing panel as he did not need to sign this form when we remortgaged 3 years ago (2) Does our son by signing this giving up his rights to inherit the property?
First, rest assured that your Cumberland Building Society conveyancing panel solicitor is doing the right thing 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 Cumberland Building Society .This is solely used to protect the Cumberland Building Society 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 Cumberland Building Society 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.

Having used your search tool I can't find the lawyer I was hoping to instruct as being on the Cumberland Building Society conveyancing panel. My lawyer has said that they are on the Cumberland 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 Cumberland 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 Cumberland Building Society solicitor panel.
The firm that just started acting on my purchase in Hendon has without warning shut down. I chose them because I had to have a solicitor on the Cumberland Building Society conveyancing panel and my family lawyer was not. I paid them £200 on account. What should be my next steps?
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 Cumberland Building Society 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 should be in a position to assist
Can you point me to a directory of Cumberland Building Society panel solicitors on the CML Handbook Website?
No. There is no such tool on the Council of Mortgage Lenders or Building Society Association websites. Very few lenders make their panel listings available online.
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 Cumberland Building Society conveyancing panel requirements are different to Cumberland Building Society’s conveyancing panel criteria.
Planning on purchasing a house with a mortgage with Cumberland Building Society. I have received an online quote from a licensed conveyancer, which states: "There will be no charge for dealing with the Building Society if you are obtaining a mortgage". I take this to mean that there will be no additional fee if the solicitor is on the Cumberland Building Society conveyancing panel. I wanted to make sure it means there will be no additional fees for dealing with the mortgage.
They are simply saying that the cost for acting for the lender is included in the fee being quoted. It is worth you checking that they are on the Cumberland Building Society conveyancing panel