Hodge Conveyancing Panel Information

The criteria to join the Hodge conveyancing panel is likely to be fairly detailed and is unlikely to include signing up to LENDERmonitor alerts.

The Law Society of Scotland has advised that solicitors should check their lender panel status prior to accepting client instructions to act. The advice is lender-agnostic as it does not relate specifically to solicitors on the Hodge conveyancing panel. The recommendation arises from the practice of a number of mortgage lenders who remove solicitors from their panels without prior notice as part of their panel management system, which can lead to some solicitors discovering this only once instructed. This is sensible advice as a client finding out midway through a transaction that their lawyer is not on the approved lender panel is very frustrating and can lead to complaints. Many online consumer forums contain posts where someone is complaining about finding that their lawyer is not on a lender conveyancing panel. Such forums include mumsnet.com

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

With lenders and conveyancing firms working so closely together it is surprising that there has not been much call for the introduction of a bit of transparency regarding not just the figures for the Hodge conveyancing panel but for all mortgage panel listings

In this situation please explain on the form what steps you have taken to find out the reasons behind cancellation of your Hodge panel status. In particular please provide details if you have received communications from the lender. E.G. before revocation of your panel membership did you receive any letters or calls from the lender informing you as to why they reached this decision?

You should contact Hodge to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook includes an explicit inquiry for lenders to set out who to contact to obtain standard documents. Hodge in their Part 2’s state: Please remember to disclose the firm’s Hodge solicitors panel number.