Cambridge Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

The information on this page is designed to keep solicitors and licensed conveyancers abreast of latest requirements changes by Cambridge Building Society and to assist in remaining on the Cambridge Building Society Approved Conveyancing Solicitors.

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How does my firm apply to be on the Cambridge Building Society Approved Conveyancing Solicitors?

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How can my firm be reinstated onto the Cambridge Building Society Approved Conveyancing Solicitors?

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Cambridge Building Society Solicitor Panel Information:

What are the Cambridge Building Society conveyancing panel criteria?

Unlike the CML the Building Society Mortgage Instructions deal with this. Section A.12 states ‘In order to act on our behalf your firm or company must be a member of our conveyancing panel provided we are a society that operates one – see specific requirements for details of our arrangements. The Special Requirements state:

The minimum criteria for appointment to our panel are:

At least two qualified partners who hold current Law Society practising certificates

The practice must be listed in the Law Society or Council for Licensed Conveyancers directories

The firm must have a minimum of £2 million professional indemnity cover

You must also comply with the terms and conditions of your Cambridge Building Society solicitor panel appointment.

Can a practice make a complaint to the BSA about being removed excluded suspended from the Cambridge Building Society conveyancing panel?

The BSA is not a regulator and therefore do not investigate grievances against lenders. You can of course contact Lexsure to see if we can assist.

Is it conceivable that Cambridge Building Society will instruct an alternative firm on the Cambridge Building Society solicitor panel for a further advance during the mortgage term ?

The BSA Mortgage Instructions relevant to a solicitor on the Cambridge Building Society conveyancing panel indicates that when a further advance is required for alterations or improvements to the property we will not normally instruct a member of the Cambridge Building Society conveyancing panel but if you are instructed the appropriate provisions of the BSA mortgage instruction must be followed .

As a practice on the Cambridge Building Society conveyancing panel who do I contact should we have a question conerning the BSA Specific Requirements ?

If you are a conveyancer and have a question relating to the Specific Requirements, you should make contact with Cambridge Building Society. The BSA will not advise or comment on specific queries relating to Cambridge Building Society or other lenders.

A recent SRA survey reveals that three quarters of solicitors have been removed or threatened with removal from a lender conveyancing panel. Cambridge Building Society and other building societies have restricted their panel over the years. Why?

The feeling from lenders generally (we can not speak for Cambridge Building Society specifically), is that for too long solicitors have concentrated on their duty of care to their purchasing client, and have paid scant attention to the duty they owe to the lender, whom they conveniently forget is also their client.

Looking from the lenders’ perspective, it has to be said that there are pressures to encourage smaller panels. The Financial Services Authority regards the open panel system as a major contributor to mortgage fraud and negligence cases, and has been leaning on lenders to move to proactive panel management, which is more expensive the larger the panel. Hence it is becoming more common for lenders to charge fees, and/or require extensive form-filling, from would-be panel members

Cambridge Building Society and other BSA lenders are in varying stages of reviewing their approach to vetting firms on their conveyancing panels, to ensure their ongoing exposure to unsuitable firms is reduced.

What reports are available via COMPLETIONmonitor to assist my application to be on the Cambridge Building Society conveyancing panel?

There are many reports available but examples include:

Average time frame to register charges at the Land Registry
Average time frame to send deeds to the lender (calculated from completion date or title registration)
Number of conveyancing cases by lender
The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale)
Average mortgage advance
Buy to Let transactions
Notification to Lender analysis indicating frequency and nature of disclosures - to include benchmarking analysis against aggregate data
Evidence of undertaking logs
Current and historic missed priority dates
Analysis as to the nature of clients (e.g. existing client )

The firm that I work for is on the Cambridge Building Society conveyancing panel. I am dealing with Cambridge Building Society mortgage on a purchase. My borrower client is asking not to disclose an issue to Cambridge Building Society. What do I do in this conflict situation?

When a solicitor is acting for both Cambridge Building Society 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 your situation, if the purchaser will not consent to the information being passed on to the lender, the solicitor must cease to act for Cambridge Building Society and it may well be prudent for you to cease to act for the purchaser as well. You must not inform Cambridge Building Society of 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 Cambridge Building Society conveyancing panel status.

What lender panels do you receive the most questions about?

BSA lenders do not come within the top 20 lenders in terms of frequency of questions. The most popular lender panels in terms of questions are as follows:

Find a Lawyer on the Cambridge Building Society Approved Conveyancing Solicitors

Average number of days to register title including a charge in favour of Cambridge Building Society

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

Find solicitors on the Cambridge Building Society panel near you:

Please note that Lexsure Ltd is in no way associated with nor affiliated with Lexsure Solicitors