Kensington Mortgage Conveyancing Panel Information

The LSS proposals would have made it compulsory for lenders and buyers in the same property transaction to be represented by separate solicitors. For example if the borrower was getting a mortgage with Kensington Mortgage one solicitor would act for Kensington Mortgage being on the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel and a separate lawyer would act for the borrower.

The key points that the CML raise are Compulsory separate representation has the potential to cause considerable and unnecessary duplication of work (and costs) and increase the risk of delays in transactions. Secondly,The consultation document has not been written in a balanced way, overtly favouring the arguments for separate representation with little evidence to support the assertion of routine problems with joint representation.

The main disadvantages of not being on the approved list of Kensington Mortgage solicitors: Inevitable increase in borrowers’ conveyancing fees, due to the involvement in transactions of another firm of solicitors on the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel to protect their interest. Likely delays in conveyancing transactions involving a mortgage ,due to more complex procedures and additional lawyers.

This not something that the CML would traditionally get involved with, although they do arrange numerous general legal-related conferences that members do attend. In the near future we intend to run specific lender-focused seminars including a webinar on Kensington Mortgage’s Part 2 requirements. Practitioners on the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel will be invited. Information about the webinar will be made available as part of the LENDERmonitor P2 change Notifications.

We can't comment specifically on Kensington Mortgage. Many major lenders are now introducing ‘file auditing’ as standard practice in relation to completed matters. This raises questions of confidentiality in relation to the borrower and the purpose to which the results of such audits will be put. The starting point is to remember that the file does not belong to your firm, it belongs to the ‘client’. But, of course, we will normally have two clients--the buyer and the lender--and you will owe a duty of confidentiality to each. So basically, you have to separate the file and only send the lender the parts solely relating to the lender. But, of course, this should be correspondence pertaining to the lender, mortgage instructions etc.

The emerging convention is that lenders include authority to disclose in loan application forms to counter this problem. Mortgage Express v Sawali, [2010] EWHC 3054 (Ch) indicates that such provisions are valid. Please click here for more information about that case.

For most lenders participation on the lender's panel of conveyancers is at the absolute discretion of the the lender. Many lenders reserve the right to accept or reject an application without giving any reason. You should check your original application to join the Kensington Mortgage conveyancing panel to see if you are entitled to a reason.