Bradford & Bingley Conveyancing Panel Information

One might ordinarily expect Bradford & Bingley via their Part Two obligations to address this but the Handbook makes no mention on deadlines to send deeds. You need to look at the Terms of Bradford & Bingley’s Conveyancing Panel Appointment that you are bound by. For a number of banks these Terms include a clause 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 Bradford & Bingley updated. Law firms can often compound their problems by not communicating with the lender when there is a delay or problem.

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 Bradford & Bingley as at todays date. If you're about to receive instructions from a client on a buy to let purchase with a mortgage from Bradford & Bingley we suggest that you call Bradford & Bingley to check the position.

The key here is the caveat ‘more onerous’. You have to try and take an objective view as to whether the Terms relating to the Bradford & Bingley conveyancing appointment (or other terms for other lenders) are ‘more onerous’ than the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook Conditions. Depending on the Terms you may need to provide details on your renewal form. If you are in any doubt please call your broker to discuss before moving forward on this question.

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

In this situation please explain on the application what action you have taken to find out the reasons behind cancellation of your Bradford & Bingley panel membership. 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 informing you as to why they reached this decision?

You need to get in touch with Bradford & Bingley to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook includes an individual question for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Bradford & Bingley in their Part 2’s state: Don’t forget to quote your Bradford & Bingley conveyancing panel reference.