Holmesdale Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

The fact of the matter is that estate agents are suffering if their clients start out on the buying process having appointed a solicitor who is not on the panel with the purchaser’s chosen lender. Many conveyancing firms are only discovering when they begin working on a case that they are no longer able to work with that lender. Given the inevitable resultant delays in the transaction the chances of an abortive deal increases dramatically. in the circumstances there is understandable anguish on the part of the estate agent as a result of the lost time should the client have to change solicitors .

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

• Average time frame to send deeds to the lender (calculated from completion date or title registration)
• Evidence of undertaking logs
• Disclosure/Notification to Lender analysis indicating frequency and nature of disclosures - to include benchmarking analysis against aggregate data
• Average mortgage advance
• Number of conveyancing cases by lender

When a solicitor is acting for both Holmesdale Building Society 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 Holmesdale Building Society and it may well be prudent you to cease to act for the purchaser as well. You can not tell the Holmesdale Building Society 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 Holmesdale Building Society 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. (I) 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 Holmesdale Building Society immediately. (II) 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 Holmesdale Building Society’s mortgage offer are correct. If they are not, please let Holmesdale Building Society know as soon as possible as it will be necessary for Holmesdale Building Society to check with the valuer whether the valuation needs to be revised. Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel solicitors are not expected to assume the role of valuer. Holmesdale Building Society are simply trying to ensure that the valuer has valued the property based on correct information. Thirdly, Holmesdale Building Society 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. Holmesdale Building Society recommend that, if we send a copy of a valuation report that Holmesdale Building Society 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 Holmesdale Building Society 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 Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel

In the circumstances please clarify on the form what action you have taken to find out the reasons behind cancellation of your Holmesdale Building Society panel status. In particular please provide details if you have received communications from the lender. E.G. before cessation 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 get in touch with Holmesdale Building Society to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook includes an explicit section for banks to enumerate who to contact to obtain standard documents. Holmesdale Building Society in their Part 2’s state: Don’t forget to quote your Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel number.