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April Mortgages Solicitor Panel: Recently Asked Questions
April Mortgages has instructed me to conduct due diligence for them alone on a residential conveyancing transaction , using the CML Lender’s Handbook. The borrower has his own solicitor (not on the
April Mortgages conveyancing panel) How does this work and are there different requirements from April Mortgages in this circumstance?
The Council of Mortgage Lenders, along with
April Mortgages and other stakeholders developed a standard set of requirements where a conveyancer is acting for a lender such as April Mortgages alone in a residential conveyancing matter.
These obligations are contained at Part 3 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook and are to be followed in conjunction with Sections One and Two.
The CML have published an example requirements letter to the borrower’s conveyancing solicitor for use by the lender's conveyancer, and sets out to the borrower's conveyancer, the documentary and information requirements of the lender's panel lawyer.
Can you suggest any advice if we wish to appeal being removed from the
April Mortgages solicitor panel?
If you are removed from the
April Mortgages conveyancing panel and you are unaware of or disagree with the reasons for your removal you should: (a) Contact
April Mortgages directly. (b) If there is an appeals process detailed on your letter you should follow the process.
In appealing a decision by April Mortgages, it may be useful to provide the following information:
- Comprehensive account of your transaction history
- Your COMPLETIONmonitor reports, assuming you use the Lexsure software
- Your recent claims history
- comprehensive details of all staff in your practice and their role.
- Note down if a solicitor has been admitted to the role on completion of the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test.
- Supply copy practising certificates, the firm's current PII schedule and your accountant's certificate, confirming the % of the firm's gross fee income is resulting from residential conveyancing
It is encouraging that some firms have been able to regain membership to panels notwithstanding the policy by the respective lenders to refuse panel membership to firms with certain profiles or characteristics. The success is primarily due to the firms’ ability to persuade the lender to make an exception if there is sufficient evidence to reassure them that the firm has a healthy attitude towards risk mitigation.
I am hearing that agents are using online checkers to see if a firm is on a lender panel. Why?
The fact of the matter is that estate agents are feeling the pain if their clients start out on the conveyancing process using a conveyancer who is not on the panel with the purchaser’s chosen lender. Many
conveyancing firms are only discovering when they begin working on a
case that they are no longer able to work with that lender. Given
the inevitable resultant delays in the transaction the chances of an
abortive deal increases dramatically. in the circumstances there is
understandable anguish on the part of the estate agent as a result of
the lost time should the client have to change solicitors .
Can you give me an example of some of the reports available via COMPLETIONmonitor to support my application to be on the April Mortgages conveyancing panel
?
There are many reports available, five of which are as follows:
- Evidence of undertaking logs
- Number of conveyancing cases by lender
- The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale/purchase and remortgage)
- Analysis as to the nature of clients (e.g.existing/new/seen in person)
- Disclosure/Notification to Lender analysis indicating frequency and nature of disclosures - to include benchmarking analysis against aggregate data
Do lenders such as
April Mortgages operate an independent conveyancing panel for buy to let mortgages?
The majority of lenders do not operate a specific buy to let conveyancing panel but we are hearing about a few that do. We do not know what the position is with
April Mortgages as at todays date. If you're about to receive instructions from a client on a buy to let purchase with a mortgage from
April Mortgages we suggest that you call
April Mortgages to check the position.
Our membership of the
April Mortgages conveyancing panel was terminated but was reinstated on appeal, do I need to include these details on my CQS application?
It would be advisable to supply details of the date of removal, information on the reason for
removal, date of appeal and any reason given for reinstatement. This
should not negatively affect your firm’s application but gives the Law Society viability as to what has occured.
Our practice is on the
April Mortgages
conveyancing panel and all set to complete a remortgage within the next week. I can not locate a Mortgage Deed for the client to execute.
Who do I contact at April Mortgages to request substitute deeds?
You need to get in touch with April Mortgages
to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook has an express inquiry for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents.
April Mortgages in their Part 2’s state:
Please remember to disclose your April Mortgages solicitors panel reference.
Find a Lawyer on the April Mortgages Conveyancing Panel
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Average number of days to register title including a charge in favour of April Mortgages
This information relates to purchase only and not remortgages.
| Year | Days* |
|---|---|
| 2026 | [no data] |
| 2025 | [no data] |
| 2024 | [no data] |
| 2023 | [no data] |
| 2022 | [no data] |
| 2021 | [no data] |
* Data aggregated from sources including COMPLETIONmonitor
Other related topics:
- CQS policy templates and procedures for accredited April Mortgages Firms
- Draft Report on Title precedent for April Mortgages borrowers
- Draft Anti Money Laundering PolicyTemplate for April Mortgages panel firms to consider
- Dealing with Lender Policy Template panel for CQS accredited firms on the April Mortgages lender panel
- Buy-to-Let help for April Mortgages
- Consent-to-Let help for April Mortgages
- Contractor Mortgages with April Mortgages
