Foundation Home loans Conveyancing Panel Information

Each lender has different criteria. We do not hold specific requirements relating to the questions raised as part of the application to be on the Foundation Home loans conveyancing panel. Typically lenders need to have full knowledge of a firm including (but not limited to):

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

The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale

Full complaints history for each conveyancing solicitor

Automated alerting to inform lenders when there is a fundamental change to the firm (e.g. change of management)

Number of lender conveyancing panels the firm is currently on

Full complaints history for each licensed conveyancer

top-up split and history of any refusals

Firm name, address and contact details including all branches (including evidence of existence through risk-based physical visits and Google Streetview checks)

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.

List of all solicitors within firm

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)
• Disclosure/Notification to Lender analysis indicating frequency and nature of disclosures - to include benchmarking analysis against aggregate data
• Buy to Let transactions
• Evidence of undertaking logs
• Average time frame to register charges at the Land Registry

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

CQS membership is 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 join their approved list of conveyancing solicitors. A number of Lenders now use the Conveyancing Quality Scheme accreditation as the starting point for Panel membership such as Astra Mortgages.

You need to contact Foundation Home loans to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook incorporates an express section for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Foundation Home loans in their Part 2’s state: You will need to quote your Foundation Home loans solicitors panel number.