April Mortgages Conveyancing Panel Information

The information on this page is designed to keep solicitors and licensed conveyancers abreast of latest requirements changes by April Mortgages and to assist in remaining on the April Mortgages Conveyancing Panel.

April Mortgages Conveyancing Panel: Recently Asked Questions

Can you recommend what we should do if we wish to appeal being removed from the April Mortgages approved solicitor list?
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:

  • Full account of your firm’s conveyancing history
  • Your COMPLETIONmonitor reports, assuming you use the Lexsure software
  • Your recent claims history
  • comprehensive details of all staff in your firm and their position.
  • Note down if a solicitor has been admitted to the role on completion of the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test.
  • Forward copy practising certificates, the firm's current professional indemnity policy and your accountant's certificate, calculating what % of the firm's gross fee income is generated from residential conveyancing transactions

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.

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A recent SRA survey reveals that 76% of solicitors have been removed from a lender conveyancing panel. April Mortgages and other lenders have restricted their panel over the years. Why?
In operating open conveyancing panels, lenders such as April Mortgages face a number of fraud and negligence risks. While there is no authoritative source of data on lender exposure to solicitor–led mortgage fraud, anecdotal evidence from lenders indicates exposure on individual cases are often in the millions of pounds. The National Fraud Authority estimates that £1bn per year is lost in mortgage -related frauds in total, which is seen as a conservative estimate.

These risks are exacerbated by the lack of a comprehensive set of data on all conveyancing firms (which, for the avoidance of doubt, would include solicitors and conveyancers across the UK) which is in a readily accessible format. Currently, lenders vet the suitability of their panel firms against a variety of disparate, incomplete and potentially inaccurate sets of information. One top 5 lender pointed out to us that it is almost impossible to track individual fraudsters who move from firm to firm, especially where they are no longer registered or no longer hold a valid practicing certificate.

April Mortgages and other lenders are in varying stages of reviewing their approach to vetting firms on their conveyancing panels, to ensure their ongoing exposure to unsuitable firms is reduced. There is also regulatory impetus on lenders to ensure that they have satisfactory oversight of their third party panels, including a due-diligence process.

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:
  • 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
  • Evidence of undertaking logs
  • The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale/purchase and remortgage)
  • Number of conveyancing cases by lender
As the Compliance Officer for Legal Practice are there regulatory implications that I should be considering if my firm is removed off the April Mortgages conveyancing panel?
What you should do largely depends on the reason that your firm has been removed off the April Mortgages conveyancing panel. The top 3 reasons are as follows:
  1. lack of transactions
  2. the lawyer is a sole practitioner
  3. as part of the HSBC panel reduction.
In these three circumstances it is unlikely that you would expected to take any action. Disclosure and other compliance considerations are more likely to be relevant if the reason for removal is due to breaches of lender requirements or allegations of fraud or negligence. Whether the reasoning should trigger a disclosable 'material' breach will depend on the firm and the circumstances around possible failures to comply with the SRA Authorisation Rules, and the SRA will judge each case on its own merits. Factors such as the detriment or risk of detriment to clients, the scale of the issue and overall impact on the firm will need to be considered in deciding whether a failure is 'material'. As the compliance officer you will need systems to identify patterns of breaches. Even if you don't consider there to be regulatory implications the firms COFA should give some thought to whether she/he needs to take any action as result of being removed from the April Mortgages conveyancing panel.
Every so often I read a LENDERmonitor notification but I don't see that many important changes. For example, I am on the April Mortgages conveyancing panel and receive a notification simply telling me a change of address. Does that matter?
Yes it does matter 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 April Mortgages conveyancing panel. Is possible next month that April Mortgages change their requirements as to where their panel firm send the deeds. Do you change the details in your case management system? Is this recorded anywhere? Is this communicated to the staff? By virtue of your COT April Mortgages 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 in breach of an undertaking in sending it to the wrong address, you run the risk of April Mortgages suspending you off the panel because they are not receiving the deeds in accordance with the COT. It will not be a valid excuse to say that you sent it to an address that is no longer valid.
my firm’s membership of the April Mortgages conveyancing panel was revoked but was reinstated on appeal, do I need to include these details on my CQS application?
You should provide details of the date of removal, information on the reason for removal, date of appeal and any reason given for reinstatement. This should not adversely impact your application but gives the CQS team a complete picture of what has gone on.
I am on the April Mortgages conveyancing panel and due to complete a remortgage shortly. I dont have a Mortgage Deed for the client to execute. Who do I contact at April Mortgages to get a duplicate Deed?
You would be advised to communicate with April Mortgages to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook includes a specific inquiry for lenders to establish who to contact to obtain standard documents. April Mortgages in their Part 2’s state:
You will need to quote the firm’s April Mortgages solicitors panel number.

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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.
YearDays*
2025 [no data]
2024 [no data]
2023 [no data]
2022 [no data]
2021 [no data]
2020 [no data]
* Data aggregated from sources including COMPLETIONmonitor