Kensington Mortgage Conveyancing Panel Information

We are not aware of any intention on the part of the CML to develop such a register.

Many estate agents will be suffering if their clients start out on the buying process using 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 lawyers.

You will be aware of the trend in recent years for lenders such as Kensington Mortgage to take a much more pro-active approach in relation to the management and make up of their conveyancer panels. The knock on effect of this is that it is more likely that there will be a higher number of cases where a conveyancer is not on the Kensington Mortgage panel. The situation that you find yourself in is where your client’s purchaser has his/her own lawyer and Kensington Mortgage have appointed a separate lawyer to act on their behalf where the new CML Part 3 requirements apply. Section 11.1 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook Part 3 requires Kensington Mortgage’s panel solicitor to ‘ ...transfer the mortgage advance directly to the Seller’s conveyancer. The Seller’s conveyancer must be required to hold the mortgage advance on the terms of the required undertaking. The example borrower’s conveyancer’s undertaking letter includes a specific example of the seller’s undertaking’. You should expect to be advised to received the mortgage advance directly from the conveyancing solicitors for Kensington Mortgage. You will no doubt be required to undertake directly to Kensington Mortgage’s solicitors to discharge any charges secured on the property and to send directly to them the executed transfer and any other documents required to enable us to effect registration. Please remember to carefully consider undertakings in accordance with your firm’s protocol and record them in your undertakings logg. Please remember that as well as this breach of this undertaking having regulatory and compliance implications it’s breach could also result in your firm being removed off the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel.

With banks and property lawyers working so closely with one another it is surprising that there has not been greater demand for the introduction of a bit of transparency regarding not just the figures for the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel but for all bank panel listings

Your insurance brokers are your best port of call to address this question. The chances are that on the basis that you have not been removed for fraud or negligence reasons that there will be little or no impact. The main reason why a firm would be removed off of a lender panel is due to low volume of conveyancing cases although there may be a number of criteria for Kensington Mortgage solicitor panel membership. Please remember that it is always important that you complete your insurance forms accurately.

You need to contact Kensington Mortgage to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook contains an express inquiry for banks to enumerate who to contact to obtain standard documents. Kensington Mortgage in their Part 2’s state: It is likely that you will need to disclose the firm’s Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel reference.