Family Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

The Council of Mortgage Lender requirements of Family Building Society are silent on this. Most lenders address the issue of file retention via their Terms and Conditions where they generally provide that for evidential purposes, the firm must keep the file for at least of 6 years from the date of the mortgage. Data imagining is normally suitable compliance with this requirement. Many lenders point out in that it is the practice of some fraudsters to demand the conveyancing file on completion in order to destroy evidence that may later be used against them. It is therefore important to retain these documents to protect Family Building Society’s interest. To be absolutely sure of Family Building Society requirements in this regard please check the Terms and Conditions of Family Building Society’s conveyancing panel acceptance.

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

• Current and historic missed priority dates
• Disclosure/Notification to Lender analysis indicating frequency and nature of disclosures - to include benchmarking analysis against aggregate data
• The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale/purchase and remortgage)
• Average time frame to register charges at the Land Registry
• Evidence of undertaking logs

In the same way that there is a unique Family Building Society conveyancing panel most building societies, operate a conveyancing panel for solicitors and other conveyancers that the lender will instruct. Terms and Conditions and criteria for inclusion on a building society conveyancing panel vary from lender-to-lender. Having CQS accreditation may be a requirement. Institutional lenders, such as a building society, is a client and is entitled to instruct the solicitor or conveyancer of its choosing (who, in turn, is free to accept or refuse instructions). Therefore, if lender and borrower cannot agree which solicitor or conveyancer should represent them jointly, they would usually proceed on a separate representation basis. The BSA have not published the equivalent of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook Part 3s.

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 Family Building Society conveyancing appointment (or other terms for other lenders) are ‘more onerous’ than the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook Conditions. 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 moving forward on this question.

CQS accreditation is no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. Nevertheless the CML have indicated that it is likely to become a prerequisite for firms wishing to remain on their panels. Some Lenders now use CQS as the starting point for Panel approval as is the case with Astra Mortgages.

You should get in touch with Family Building Society to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook has an individual inquiry for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Family Building Society in their Part 2’s state: You will need to disclose your Family Building Society solicitors panel reference.