Britannia Conveyancing Panel Information

The CML, together with Britannia and other stakeholders developed a standard set of instructions where a conveyancer is acting for a lender such as Britannia alone in a residential conveyancing matter. These obligations are contained at Part Three of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook and are to be followed together with Parts 1 & 2. The CML have published an example requirements letter to the borrower’s lawyer 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 lender panel status prior to accepting client instructions to act. The advice is lender-agnostic as it does not relate specifically to solicitors on the Britannia 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 mumsnet.com

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.

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 Britannia conveyancing panel to see if you are entitled to a reason.

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 negatively affect your application but gives the CQS team a complete picture of what has occured.

You would be advised to contact Britannia to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook contains an explicit inquiry for banks to enumerate who to contact to obtain standard documents. Britannia in their Part 2’s state: Please remember to disclose your Britannia conveyancing panel number.