Gen H Conveyancing Panel Information

The requirements to join the Gen H conveyancing panel is likely to be fairly detailed and is unlikely to include signing up to LENDERmonitor alerts.

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 Gen H conveyancing panel. Typically lenders need to have full knowledge of a firm including (but not limited to):

List of all Licensed Conveyancers within firm

Full disciplinary history for each conveyancing solicitor

Full disciplinary history for each licensed conveyancer

purchase and remortgage)

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

Full complaints history for each licensed conveyancer

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

Number of lender conveyancing panels the firm is currently on

Number of partners per branch of the firm

List of all those staff who work within the conveyancing team

We can't comment specifically on Gen H. Many major lenders are now introducing ‘file auditing’ as standard practice in relation to completed matters. This raises questions of confidentiality in relation to the buyer client and the purpose to which the results of such audits will be put. The starting point is to remember that the file does not belong to your firm, it belongs to the ‘client’. But, of course, we will normally have two clients – the buyer and the lender - and you will owe a duty of confidentiality to each. So basically, you have to separate the file and just send the lender the parts solely relating to themselves. But, of course, as this will basically be correspondence with the lender, mortgage instructions etc.

Check with your COLP but a firm should not send the complete conveyancing file without the buyer client’s express consent – and if he is in arrears with the lender he is hardly likely to agree. However, if the lender can establish a prima facie case of fraud, then you may be under an obligation to disclose the whole file.

The emerging convention is that lenders are including an authority to disclose in loan application forms to counter this problem. Mortgage Express v Sawali, [2010] EWHC 3054 (Ch) indicates that such provisions are valid. Please click here for more information about that case.

Please tread carefully here as what you are intending may not be acceptable to the lender. It is possible that you (as a non-panel firm) or the mortgage applicant are not at liberty 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 must 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.

We would recommend that you provide details of the date of removal, information on the reason for removal, date of appeal and any reason given for reinstatement. This should not adversely impact your application but gives the CQS team a complete picture of what has happened.

You would be advised to contact Gen H to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook contains an explicit section for lenders to set out who to contact to obtain standard documents. Gen H in their Part 2’s state: Don’t forget to quote your Gen H solicitors panel reference.