Solicitor query, help!

[AuraofDora]

We are re-mortgaging, it's a staircase of shared ownership property. The bank solicitor has been in touch for payment which is essentially duplicating tasks that our solicitor would take care of.
Have rang them both now and it looks like we either go with the bank's solicitor or pay to have things done twice as our solicitor is not on the bank's panel and the bank will not deal with them?
Is this normal behaviour does anyone know?
We selected our solicitor as they have dealings with the housing association who are slow and tricky.
We were warned at the bank when getting mortgage that we would pay a penalty of nearly £200 for having our own solicitor but not warned that we would in effect pay twice for each task should we not choose from their list..
Really appreciate any clarity on this, tia.

I think this is increasingly common and some of the large banking groups insist on this.

We are currently buying a new property and found the bank insisted on one of their panel solicitors or else we had to pay 2 lots of fees (our solicitor And the bank's solicitor) - they said it was a result of fraud and so they want to use pre-approved legal firms. It's a bit odd as it means we have a solicitor in Manchester whilst we are in London but so far the experience has been ok.