Holmesdale Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

The Council of Mortgage Lenders, together with Holmesdale Building Society and other stakeholders created a standard set of requirements where a solicitor is representing a lender such as Holmesdale Building Society alone in a residential conveyancing transaction. These requirements are contained at Part III of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook and are to be read together with Parts 1 & 2. The CML have published an example requirements letter to the borrower’s conveyancing solicitor for adaptation by the lender's conveyancer, and sets out to the borrower's conveyancer, the documentary and information requirements of the lender's panel conveyancer.

Many estate agents will be suffering if their clients start out on the conveyancing process having appointed a conveyancer 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 .

You need to be careful here as what you are intending may not be acceptable to the mortgage company. It is possible that you (as a non-panel firm) or the mortgage applicant are not entitled instruct a panel firm of your choice. An increasing amount of lenders are making 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 conveyancing firm. You also need to make the costs implications and potential for delay very clear to your client.

In this situation please clarify on the form what steps you have taken to discover the reasons behind cancellation of your Holmesdale Building Society panel membership. 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 advising you as to their reasons?

You should communicate with Holmesdale Building Society to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook has a specific inquiry for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Holmesdale Building Society in their Part 2’s state: It helps to quote your Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel reference.