Bank of Ireland Conveyancing Panel Information

The CML, along with Bank of Ireland and other members developed a standard set of requirements where a solicitor is acting for a lender such as Bank of Ireland alone in a residential conveyancing transaction. These requirements are contained at Part 3 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook and are to be followed together with Sections One and Two. The CML have published an example requirements letter to the borrower’s conveyancing solicitor for adaptation by the lender's conveyancer, and sets out to the borrower's conveyancer, the documentary and information requirements of the lender's panel solicitor.

The Law Society of Scotland has advised that solicitors should check their panel status with lenders prior to accepting client instructions to act. The advice is lender-agnostic as it does not relate specifically to solicitors on the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel. The suggestion arises from the practice of a number of mortgage lenders who remove solicitors from their panels without prior notice as part of their panel management system, which can lead to some solicitors discovering this only once instructed. This is sensible advice as a client finding out midway through a transaction that their lawyer is not on the approved lender panel is very frustrating and can lead to complaints. Many online consumer forums contain posts where someone is complaining about finding that their lawyer is not on a lender conveyancing panel. Such forums include moneysavingexpert.com

One might ordinarily expect Bank of Ireland via their Part 2 conditions to address this but the Handbook is silent on time frames. You need to look at the Terms of Bank of Ireland’s Conveyancing Panel Appointment that you previously signed. For many lender's these Terms have a provision along the following lines: ‘To keep us informed of the reasons for any delay in your being able to send the title deeds and documents we require to us within 3 months of completion or evidence of proof of registration within that period. (We will send reminders if the deeds have not been received but will not acknowledge receipt of deeds’ It is important to keep Bank of Ireland updated. Law firms can often compound their problems by not communicating with the lender when there is a delay or problem.

You will be aware of the trend in recent years for lenders such as Bank of Ireland to take a much more pro-active approach in relation to the management and make up of their conveyancer panels. The knock on effect of this is that it is more likely that there will be a higher number of cases where a conveyancer is not on the Bank of Ireland panel. The situation that you find yourself in is where your client’s purchaser has his/her own lawyer and Bank of Ireland have appointed a separate lawyer to act on their behalf where the new CML Part 3 requirements apply. Section 11.1 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook Part 3 requires Bank of Ireland’s panel solicitor to ‘ ...transfer the mortgage advance directly to the Seller’s conveyancer. The Seller’s conveyancer must be required to hold the mortgage advance on the terms of the required undertaking. The example borrower’s conveyancer’s undertaking letter includes a specific example of the seller’s undertaking’. You should expect to be advised to received the mortgage advance directly from the conveyancing solicitors for Bank of Ireland. You will no doubt be required to undertake directly to Bank of Ireland’s solicitors to discharge any charges secured on the property and to send directly to them the executed transfer and any other documents required to enable us to effect registration. Please remember to carefully consider undertakings in accordance with your firm’s protocol and record them in your undertakings logg. Please remember that as well as this breach of this undertaking having regulatory and compliance implications it’s breach could also result in your firm being removed off the Bank of Ireland conveyancing panel.

In the circumstances please explain on the application what action you have taken to find out the reasons behind cancellation of your Bank of Ireland panel status. In particular please provide details if you have received communications from the lender. E.G. before revocation of your panel membership did you receive any letters or calls from the lender putting you on notice?

You should contact Bank of Ireland to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook contains an explicit section for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Bank of Ireland in their Part 2’s state: It helps to quote your Bank of Ireland solicitors panel reference.