Family Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

Section 16.2.1 of Part 1 of the Handbook applicable to a solicitor on the Family Building Society conveyancing panel reads ‘Our mortgage secures further advances. Consequently, when a further advance is required for alterations or improvements to the property we will not normally instruct a member of our conveyancing panel but if you are instructed the appropriate provisions of this Handbook will apply’.

Although not necessarily published, lenders have varying criteria . We do not hold specific requirements relating to the questions raised as part of the application to be on the Family Building Society conveyancing panel. Typically lenders need to have full knowledge of a firm including (but not limited to):

List of all those staff who work within the conveyancing team

Whether the firm has ever applied for accreditation and the outcome of the application

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.

Full career history for each licensed conveyancer including registration date with Council of Licensed Conveyancers

Structure of firm and, where applicable, its group

Number of partners per branch of the firm

Number of lender conveyancing panels the firm is currently on

Whether the firm has ever accepted instructions in respect of property clubs and investment schemes

Full career history for each solicitor including admission date to the relevant Law Society

Summary of annual accounts

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

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

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 Law Society’s CQS membership gives no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. Nevertheless the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a prerequisite for firms wishing to remain on their approved list of conveyancing solicitors. A number of Lenders now use CQS as the starting point for Panel approval such as Astra Mortgages.

You should get in touch with Family Building Society to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook incorporates an express section for lenders to reveal who to contact to obtain standard documents. Family Building Society in their Part 2’s state: It helps to disclose the firm’s Family Building Society solicitors panel reference.