Chesham Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

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.

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

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

Many estate agents will be suffering if their clients start out on the conveyancing process having appointed a conveyancer who is not on the panel with the purchaser’s chosen lender. Many conveyancing firms are only discovering when they begin working on a case that they are no longer able to work with that lender. Given the inevitable resultant delays in the transaction the chances of an abortive deal increases dramatically. in the circumstances there is understandable anguish on the part of the estate agent as a result of the lost time should the client have to change solicitors lawyers.

Each lender has different criteria. We do not hold specific requirements relating to the questions raised as part of the application to be on the Chesham Building Society conveyancing panel. Typically lenders need to have full knowledge of a firm including (but not limited to):

• List of all those who fund the firm, including non-lawyers if applicable
• Whether the firm has ever applied for accreditation and the outcome of the application
• Number of lender conveyancing panels the firm is currently on
• Areas of Law covered by the firm
• List of all those who can sign off the Certificate Of Title
• Whether any lender has ever made a claim against the firm’s PII cover
• Full career history for each licensed conveyancer including registration date with Council of Licensed Conveyancers
• SRA or equivalent regulator registration number where applicable
• The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing purchase and remortgage
• Whether the firm has ever knowingly accepted instructions on transactions involving Sale and Rent Back, Back to Back, Exchange and Delayed Completion and Lease Option, Below Market Value.

What you should do largely depends on the reason that your firm has been removed off the Chesham Building Society conveyancing panel. The top 3 reasons are as follows:

1. lack of transactions
2. the lawyer is a sole practitioner
3. as part of the HSBC panel reduction.

In these three circumstances it is unlikely that you would expected to take any action. Disclosure and other compliance considerations are more likely to be relevant if the reason for removal is due to breaches of lender requirements or allegations of fraud or negligence. Whether the reasoning should trigger a disclosable 'material' breach will depend on the firm and the circumstances around possible failures to comply with the SRA Authorisation Rules, and the SRA will judge each case on its own merits. Factors such as the detriment or risk of detriment to clients, the scale of the issue and overall impact on the firm will need to be considered in deciding whether a failure is 'material'. As the COLP you will need systems to identify patterns of breaches. Even if you don't consider there to be regulatory implications, the firms COFA needs to consider whether he or she needs to take any action as result of being removed from the conveyancing panel of Chesham Building Society.

The BSA Mortgage Instructions don't specifically deal with Solar Panels but it would be prudent as approved solicitors for Chesham Building Society to raise the issue with them (as you would if the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook applied). In any event you need to raise the appropriate questions for your buyer client.

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:

• Santander Conveyancing Panel
• National Westminster Bank Conveyancing Panel
• Royal Bank of Scotland Conveyancing Panel
• HSBC Conveyancing Panel
• Lloyds Conveyancing Panel

6 consumers attempt to locate a conveyancer on the Chesham Building Society panel on a monthly basis in Hendon. Please contact the team at lenderpanel.com to see how your firm can be listed by those searching for conveyancing in Hendon.