Barclays plc Conveyancing Panel Information

The Scottish Law Society has advised that solicitors should check their lender panel status prior to accepting client instructions to act. The advice is lender-agnostic since it does not relate specifically to solicitors on the Barclays plc conveyancing panel. Because a number of mortgage lenders remove solicitors from their panels without prior notice as part of their panel management system, some solicitors discover their removal too late to be effective. Checking one’s legal panel status is sensible advice because a client who finds his lawyer is not on the approved lender panel is very frustrating and can lead to complaints as seen on online consumer forums. Such forums include moneysavingexpert.com

We only know of two or three lenders that operate a separate conveyancing panel where the mortgage advance is over a certain threshold. You should nevertheless check directly with Barclays plc. At one stage HSBC would only allow Sole practitioners to act for them where the mortgage was below £150,000. We are not sure if HSBC still operate such a condition. In your case it is best to check with Barclays plc

In operating open conveyancing panels, lenders such as Barclays plc 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), 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 out of the top five lenders 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.

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

We can't comment specifically on Barclays plc. Many major lenders are now introducing ‘file auditing’ as standard practice in relation to completed matters. This raises questions of confidentiality in relation to the borrower and the purpose to which the results of such audits will be put. The starting point is to remember that the file does not belong to your firm, it belongs to the ‘client’. But, of course, we will normally have two clients--the buyer and the lender--and you will owe a duty of confidentiality to each. So basically, you have to separate the file and only send the lender the parts solely relating to the lender. But, of course, this should be correspondence pertaining to the lender, mortgage instructions etc.

The emerging convention is that lenders include authority to disclose in loan application forms to counter this problem. Mortgage Express v Sawali, [2010] EWHC 3054 (Ch) indicates that such provisions are valid. Please click here for more information about that case.

Most lenders do not operate a specific buy-to-let conveyancing panel, but a few do. We do not know what the position is with Barclays plc as of today. If you're about to receive instructions from a client on a buy-to-let purchase with a mortgage from Barclays plc, we suggest that you call Barclays plc to check the position.