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You will need to have a conveyancer complete the legal work required when you take out a TSB mortgage to buy your property. They’ll carry out all the necessary legal checks on the property, make sure that you’re properly registered as the owner and ensure that all the necessary mortgage documentation is in place. You can instruct a conveyancing firm of your choice. However, if the firm selected is not a member of the TSB conveyancing panel additional costs will be incurred as separate legal representation will be required by TSB. Conveyancing panel applications can be submitted, so if your conveyancer has not previously applied for membership they can do so.

Your lawyer being on the TSB conveyancing panel is duty bound to inform TSB of any changes to the purchase price. If you were to refuse your lawyers to disclose the reduction to TSB then they would have to discontinue acting for you and TSB.

Our service is a directory service for firms who wish to be listed as being on the approved conveyancing panel for TSB . We don’t recommend any particular firm.

Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them straight away so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Most sellers would 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 TSB 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 assist

In the main there are no requirements by lenders for their firms to operate on a no-sale-no-fee basis. There a small number of lenders who operate a very restricted conveyancing panel managed by a third party company (often termed in the industry as a ‘gatekeeper’). That third party may impose certain conditions such as non-sale-no fee on the panel firms. If you require this as a condition of your conveyancing then you should check with the conveyancing firm that this is part of their service

As regards the TSB 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 TSB 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.

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