Better HomeOwnership Conveyancing Panel Information

The criteria to join the Better HomeOwnership conveyancing panel is likely to be fairly detailed and is unlikely to include signing up to LENDERmonitor alerts.

As is the case with the Law Society the Council of Licensed Conveyancers has entered dialogue with lenders and their representative bodies to see whether and how the risks that lenders wish to mitigate could be addressed through the regulatory framework rather than via ad hoc arrangements that can differ from lender to lender. It is likely that that the CLC have been in touch with lenders such as Better HomeOwnership since 2008 which is when lenders started being more restrictive.

You will be aware of the trend in recent years for lenders such as Better HomeOwnership 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 Better HomeOwnership panel. The situation that you find yourself in is where your client’s purchaser has his/her own lawyer and Better HomeOwnership 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 Better HomeOwnership’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 Better HomeOwnership. You will no doubt be required to undertake directly to Better HomeOwnership’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 Better HomeOwnership conveyancing panel.

For most lenders participation on the lender's panel of conveyancers is at the absolute discretion of the the lender. Many lenders reserve the right to accept or reject any application without giving any reason. You should check your original application to join the Better HomeOwnership conveyancing panel to see if you are entitled to a reason.

CQS accreditation gives no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. Nevertheless the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a prerequisite for firms wishing to remain on their panels. Some Lenders now use the scheme as the starting point for Panel acceptance as is the case with HSBC.

You need to communicate with Better HomeOwnership to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook includes an individual question for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Better HomeOwnership in their Part 2’s state: Don’t forget to quote the firm’s Better HomeOwnership solicitors panel reference.