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Britannia Conveyancing Panel: Recently Asked Questions
My firm is not on the
Britannia conveyancing panel as well other lenders.
My clients, who are getting a mortgage with Britannia would still like to instruct me even though I am not on the
Britannia panel. Am I doing anything wrong is suggesting to my client that they use a firm down the road to act for
Britannia on mortgage aspect of the conveyancing?
Please tread carefully here as what you are suggesting may not be acceptable to the mortgage company.
It is possible that you (as a non-panel firm) or the mortgage applicant are not entitled instruct a panel firm of your choice. Many lenders make it clear to their panel firms that where a non-panel member firm is instructed by one of their mortgage applicants, the lender will appoint a panel firm to carry out its instructions and to liaise with the borrower's conveyancing firm.
You also need to make the costs implications and potential for delay very clear to your client.
I noticed the following question on my PI renewal form this year ‘Has your Firm been asked by a lender to agree to more onerous terms and conditions than provided for in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook?’ My firm is on numerous approved panels including the
Britannia conveyancing panel. We have Terms and Conditions of appointment which we have to follow. Am I supposed to mention these Conditions ?
The concern here is if you are expect to enter into ‘more onerous’ conditions that than the Handbook obligations.
You have to try and take an objective view as to whether the Terms relating to the
Britannia 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.
The firm that I work for is on the
Britannia conveyancing panel. I am dealing with
Britannia mortgage on a purchase. My borrower client is asking not to disclose an issue to
Britannia. What do I do in this conflict situation?
When a solicitor is acting for both
Britannia and borrower there is potential for conflicts
to arise. You owe duties to both clients. All information received by
you from your client is confidential and cannot be disclosed without
the client’s consent. In the situation you find yourself in if the
purchaser will not consent to the information being passed on to the
lender the solicitor must cease to act for the Britannia
and it may well be prudent you to cease to act for the purchaser as
well. You can not tell the Britannia the reason for
termination of the retainer over and above the fact that a conflict
has arisen. The fact that you can no longer act should alert even the
most somnambulistic of lenders that something is wrong with the
borrower and/or purchase. The fact that you have disinstructed
yourself should not affect your Britannia conveyancing
panel status.
One of our conveyancers is acting for a seller of a property and we have just received an email from the buyers solicitors who are not on the
Britannia conveyancing panel requesting that we undertake to send certain post-completion documents to a law firm on the approved solicitor list for
Britannia. We have not come accross this before. Do we give the undertaking?
You will be aware of the trend in recent years for lenders such as
Britannia 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
Britannia panel. The situation that you find yourself in is where your client’s purchaser has his/her own lawyer and
Britannia 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
Britannia’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
Britannia. You will no doubt be required to undertake directly to
Britannia’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
Britannia conveyancing panel.
my firm’s membership of the
Britannia conveyancing panel was terminated but was reinstated on appeal, do I need to include this information on my CQS application?
We would recommend that you 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 firm’s application but gives the Law Society a complete picture of what has happened.
I am on the
Britannia
conveyancing panel and all set to complete a purchase shortly. I dont have a Mortgage Deed for the client to execute.
Who do I contact at Britannia to obtain duplicate documents?
You should communicate with Britannia
to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook has a specific inquiry for lenders to enumerate who to contact to obtain standard documents.
Britannia in their Part 2’s state:
Always remember to disclose the firm’s Britannia solicitors panel number.
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Average number of days to register title including a charge in favour of Britannia
This information relates to purchase only and not remortgages.
Year | Days* |
---|---|
2025 | [no data] |
2024 | [no data] |
2023 | [no data] |
2022 | [no data] |
2021 | [no data] |
2020 | [no data] |
* Data aggregated from sources including COMPLETIONmonitor
Other related topics:
- CQS policy templates and procedures for accredited Britannia Firms
- Draft Report on Title precedent for Britannia borrowers
- Draft Anti Money Laundering PolicyTemplate for Britannia panel firms to consider
- Dealing with Lender Policy Template panel for CQS accredited firms on the Britannia lender panel
- Buy-to-Let help for Britannia
- Consent-to-Let help for Britannia
- Contractor Mortgages with Britannia