Aldermore Bank Conveyancing Panel Information

Some might be tempted to steer clients away from those who impose the greatest restrictions on panel membership. John Scott, secretary to the Society’s Property Law (formerly Conveyancing) Committee, advises: “The difficulty there is that you are effectively giving financial advice to clients. It might be that the best choice for them is from one of these lenders and it’s difficult to see how you could give advice not to choose that product without putting yourself in a conflict position.”

This is known as the ‘Borrower/Lender Exception’ which states “In the case of a loan to be secured over heritable property, the terms of the loan have been agreed between the parties before the Solicitor has been instructed to act for the Lender, and the granting of the Security is only to give effect to such agreement.”

At the center of this exception is the reference to the prior agreement of the parties on the terms of the loan and that the Security is in effect “execution only”. Thus if one Solicitor acts for the purchaser who is also a Borrower and the Lender then there is no duplication of work nor of expense.

However the requirements of Lenders in 1986 when the exception was introduced were quite different from current requirements. Requirement after requirement has been heaped on to the Borrower/Lender Solicitor (BLS) and it appears commonplace to expect utmost good faith from the BLS and knowledge by the BLS must be passed on to the Lender if it would affect the decision to lend.

This causes issues of confidentiality to arise. The BLS has a duty of confidentiality to the Borrower and is being put under a duty to the Lender that requires disclosure. This is undesirable. If a separate Solicitor is acting for the Lender he will only know what the Lender has told him and will report anything untoward that comes up during the transaction but he will not know the confidential information of the Borrower and be under a duty to disclose it. The effect of this exception in practice is to erode client confidentiality and put the BLS in a conflict of interest situation with regard to that issue.

A good reason for retaining the exception is that the BLS can do everything necessary to meet the date of entry and control things much better than if he has to run everything he has decided passed a separate Lender Solicitor. An effect of removing the exception may be a slowing of conclusion of missives while a Solicitor for a Borrower wants to know that the Lender’s Solicitors will accept the title or other related issue position.

Not as far as we are aware. Consider registering with LenderPanel.com as being on the Aldermore Bank conveyancing panel and reach a wider audience.

Lexsure has not been advised of any intention on the part of the CML to develop such a search facility.

It is important that you take note of such changes because sending a communication or deeds to the wrong address can cause delays that might not only affect your borrower client but also impact your chances of staying on the Aldermore Bank solicitor panel. Let’s say that Aldermore Bank change their requirements as to where the post completion documents should be sent. Do you update the details in your case management system? Do you make a note? Is this communicated to the staff? By virtue of your COT Aldermore Bank, you are giving assurances that you will send the relevant documents within 10 days of receiving the Title Information Document. Leaving to one side whether you are technically breaching an undertaking in sending it to the wrong address, you run the risk of Aldermore Bank suspending you off the panel because you did not send the deeds in accordance with the COT. It will not be a valid excuse to say that you sent it to their old address.