First Direct Conveyancing Panel Information

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

• The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale/purchase and remortgage)
• Average time frame to send deeds to the lender (calculated from completion date or title registration)
• Buy to Let transactions
• Evidence of undertaking logs
• Disclosure/Notification to Lender analysis indicating frequency and nature of disclosures - to include benchmarking analysis against aggregate data

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

You have a number of obligations in this regard which are to followed if you wish to comply with your lender client’s instructions as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook. First, You must take reasonable steps to verify that there are no discrepancies between the description of the property as valued and the title and other documents which a reasonably competent conveyancer should obtain, and, if there are, you must tell First Direct immediately. Second, You should take reasonable steps to verify that the assumptions stated by the valuer about the title (for example, its tenure, easements, boundaries and restrictions on its use) in the valuation and as stated in First Direct’s mortgage offer are correct. If they are not, please let First Direct know as soon as possible as it will be necessary for First Direct to check with the valuer whether the valuation needs to be revised. First Direct conveyancing panel solicitors are not expected to assume the role of valuer. First Direct are simply trying to ensure that the valuer has valued the property based on correct information. (c) First Direct recommend that you should advise the borrower that there may be defects in the property which are not revealed by the inspection carried out by their valuer and there may be omissions or inaccuracies in the report which do not matter to them as a lender but which would matter to the borrower. First Direct recommend that, if we send a copy of a valuation report that First Direct have obtained, you should also advise the borrower that the borrower should not rely on the report in deciding whether to proceed with the purchase and that he obtains his own more detailed report on the condition and value of the property, based on a fuller inspection such as a homebuyers report or structural survey. If you do not receive a copy of the valuation you can always ask for a copy of one from First Direct or the borrower. You still need to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook Requirement relating to valuation reports even if you don't receive one directly. Failure to comply not only runs the risk of facing a claim by the lender but also being removed from the First Direct conveyancing panel

13 borrowers attempt to locate a conveyancer on the First Direct panel every 4 weeks in Hendon. Feel free to contact the Lexsure team who will tell how your firm can be found by those searching for conveyancing in Hendon.

Your insurance brokers are your best port of call to address this question. The chances are that on the basis that you have not been removed for fraud or negligence reasons that there will be little or no impact. The main reason why a firm would be removed off of a lender panel is due to low volume of conveyancing cases although there may be a number of criteria for First Direct solicitor panel membership. Please remember that it is always important that you complete your insurance forms accurately.

You need to communicate with First Direct to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook contains a specific section for lenders to enumerate who to contact to obtain standard documents. First Direct in their Part 2’s state: It is likely that you will need to disclose the firm’s First Direct solicitors panel number.