Kensington Mortgage Conveyancing Panel Information

There is no equivalent in Scotland to the Part 3 obligations of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook in England and Wales. It is anticipated that this will follow shortly in which case it will apply to the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel.

It is not apparent if there is a question here. We acknowledge that there are an increasing amount of lawyers in Scotland who point to the concerning development in 2013 where in a solicitor disciplinary case in Scotland where the Law Society of Scotland has prosecuted a conveyancing solicitor for repeated failure to comply with the CML lenders’ handbook. While the solicitor’s failures cannot and should not be forgiven, the clear message from the LSS is that its auditors will examine the minutiae of a solicitor’s purchase file for compliance with the CML lenders’ handbook. They will report and potentially act on any non-compliance they discover, insignificant or otherwise, irrespective of whether there has been any fraudulent or otherwise criminal activity on the part of the solicitor, and irrespective of the presence or absence of a complaint by the lender.

Depending of the nature of the breach yes. Only last year the Tribunal, having considered the a complaint at the instance of the Council of the Law Society of Scotland against Peter MacIntosh Aikman, Solicitor, Messrs Aikman Bell Solicitors, 19 Cadzow Place, Edinburgh; The SDDT found the Respondent guilty of Professional Misconduct in respect of; his breach on two occasions of Rule 6 (1) of the Solicitors (Scotland) Accounts Etc Rules 2001, his breach of his client’s specific instructions, his breach on five occasions of paragraphs 5.1.1, 5.1.2 and 5.10.3 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook, his breach on one occasion of paragraph 5.9.1 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook, his breach on two occasions of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook paragraph 5.8, his breach on four occasions of the Birmingham Midshire’s specific stipulations that cases where the seller has owned the property for less than 6 months and back to back transactions were not acceptable. The Respondent was fined £1000 as well as being liable in the expenses of the LSS and of the Tribunal.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders are not a regulator and therefore do not investigate complaints against lenders. You can contact Lexsure to see if we can assist. Please see our contact details below.

The Scottish Law Society has advised that solicitors should check their lender panel status prior to accepting client instructions to act. The advice is lender-agnostic since it does not relate specifically to solicitors on the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel. Because a number of mortgage lenders remove solicitors from their panels without prior notice as part of their panel management system, some solicitors discover their removal too late to be effective. Checking one’s legal panel status is sensible advice because a client who finds his lawyer is not on the approved lender panel is very frustrating and can lead to complaints as seen on online consumer forums. Such forums include moneysavingexpert.com