Chesham Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

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

Chesham Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information:

What are the Chesham Building Society conveyancing panel arrangements?
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.

Is it the case that the Law Society has advised that firms check their status on the Chesham Building Society conveyancing panel?
The Scottish Law Society has suggested that solicitors should check their panel status with lenders before accepting client instructions to act. The advice is lender-agnostic as it does not relate specifically to solicitors on the Chesham Building Society 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 moneysavingexpert.com
As the nominated Compliance Officer for Legal Practice should I be thinking about SRA Handbook implications if my firm is withdrawn off the Chesham Building Society conveyancing panel?
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 compliance officer 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.
My practice have never been on the Chesham Building Society solicitor panel as well other lenders . My clients, who are getting a mortgage with Chesham Building Society wish use my firms conveyancing services regardless of the fact that we are not on the Chesham Building Society panel. Is it fine for me to use a firm down the road to act for Chesham Building Society on mortgage aspect of the transaction?
Please tread carefully here as what you are suggesting may not be acceptable to the lender. It is possible that you (as a non-panel firm) or the mortgage applicant are not at liberty instruct a panel firm of your choice. Lenders such as Nationwide BS make it clear to their panel firms that where a non-panel member firm is instructed by one of their mortgage applicants, the lender must appoint a panel firm to carry out its instructions and to liaise with the borrower's conveyancer. You also need to make the costs implications and potential for delay very clear to your client.
My PI renewal application this year contained the following question: ‘Has your Firm been asked by a lender to agree to more onerous terms and conditions than provided for in the BSA Mortgage Instructions?’ My firm is on a number of bank panels including the Chesham Building Society conveyancing panel. We have Terms and Conditions of appointment which we have to follow. Should I reference these Conditions?
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 Chesham Building Society conveyancing appointment (or other terms for other lenders) are ‘more onerous’ than the BSA Mortgage Instructions. 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 completing the answer.

Are figures published disclosing the Chesham Building Society conveyancing panel size as well as the number of conveyancing firms dismissed each quarter?
With mortgage companies and solicitors working so closely with one another it is surprising that there has not been greater demand for the introduction of a bit of transparency regarding not just the figures for the Chesham Building Society conveyancing panel but for all mortgage panels
my firm’s membership of the Chesham Building Society conveyancing panel was revoked but was reinstated on appeal, do I need to disclose these details on my application for CQS accreditation?
You should supply 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 application but gives the CQS team a complete picture of what has gone on.
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:

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Average number of days to register title including a charge in favour of Chesham Building Society
This information relates to purchase only and not remortgages.
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* Data aggregated from sources including COMPLETIONmonitor