Darlington Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

As is the case with the Law Society the CLC has begun discussions with lenders and their representative bodies to see whether and how the risks that lenders wish to mitigate could be addressed through the regulatory framework rather than via ad hoc arrangements that can differ from lender to lender. We expect that that the CLC have been in touch with lenders such as Darlington Building Society in recent years.

There are many reports available, five of which are as follows:

• Analysis as to the nature of clients (e.g.existing/new/seen in person)
• Current and historic missed priority dates
• The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale/purchase and remortgage)
• Number of conveyancing cases by lender
• Average time frame to register charges at the Land Registry

Please tread carefully here as what you are proposing may not be acceptable to the lender. 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 conveyancer. You also need to make the costs implications and potential for delay very clear to your client.

When a solicitor is acting for both Darlington 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 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 Darlington Building Society and it may well be prudent you to cease to act for the purchaser as well. You can not tell the Darlington Building Society 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 Darlington Building Society conveyancing panel status.

The Law Society’s CQS membership gives no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. Nevertheless the CML have indicated that it is likely to become a prerequisite for firms wishing to join their panels. A number of mortgage companies now use the Conveyancing Quality Scheme accreditation as the starting point for Panel approval as is the case with Santander.

You need to get in touch with Darlington Building Society to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook incorporates an express inquiry for banks to set out who to contact to obtain standard documents. Darlington Building Society in their Part 2’s state: It is likely that you will need to disclose the firm’s Darlington Building Society conveyancing panel number.