Aldermore Bank Conveyancing Panel Information

It is not apparent if there is a question here. We acknowledge that there are an increasing amount of lawyers in Scotland who point to the concerning development in 2013 where in a solicitor disciplinary case in Scotland where the Law Society of Scotland has prosecuted a conveyancing solicitor for repeated failure to comply with the CML lenders’ handbook. While the solicitor’s failures cannot and should not be forgiven, the clear message from the LSS is that its auditors will examine the minutiae of a solicitor’s purchase file for compliance with the CML lenders’ handbook. They will report and potentially act on any non-compliance they discover, insignificant or otherwise, irrespective of whether there has been any fraudulent or otherwise criminal activity on the part of the solicitor, and irrespective of the presence or absence of a complaint by the lender.

Rule B 2.1.4 of the Law Society of Scotland Professional Practice Rules 2011 provides (inter alia) that a regulated person (i.e. Scottish qualified solicitor) shall not act for lender and borrower in a loan to be secured over heritable property. However subclause (f) then provides that this rule will not apply if the terms of the loan have been agreed between the parties before the regulated person has been instructed to act for the lender and the granting of the security is only to give effect to such agreement. This Rule superseded Clause 5 (1) of the Solicitors (Scotland) Practice Rules 1986 – the original conflict of interest rules.

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.

There are many reports available, several of which are as follows:

• Average time frame to register charges at the Land Registry
• Average time frame to send deeds to the lender (calculated from completion date or title registration)
• Number of conveyancing cases by lender
• The percentage of the firm’s business that is conveyancing (broken down into sale/purchase and remortgage)
• Average mortgage advance
• Buy-to-let transactions
• Disclosure/Notification to Lender analysis indicating frequency and nature of disclosures--to include benchmarking analysis against aggregate data
• Evidence of undertaking logs
• Current and historic missed priority dates
• Analysis as to the nature of clients (e.g.existing/new/seen in person)

When a solicitor is acting for both Aldermore Bank and the borrower, there is potential for conflicts to arise. You owe duties to both clients. All information you receive from your client is confidential and cannot be disclosed without the client’s consent. In the situation you find yourself in, if the purchaser will not consent to the information being passed on to the lender, the solicitor must cease to act for the Aldermore Bank. It may be prudent you to cease to act for the purchaser as well. You can not tell Aldermore Bank the reason for termination of the retainer over and above the fact that a conflict has arisen. The fact that you can no longer act should alert even the most somnambulistic of lenders that something is wrong with the borrower and/or purchase. The fact that you have disinstructed yourself should not affect your Aldermore Bank conveyancing panel status.