Legal & General Home Finance Conveyancing Panel Information

The criteria to join the Legal & General Home Finance conveyancing panel is likely to be fairly detailed and is unlikely to include signing up to LENDERmonitor alerts.

You need to be careful here as what you are proposing may not be acceptable to the lender. It is possible that you (as a non-panel firm) or the mortgage applicant are not entitled instruct a panel firm of your choice. Lenders such as Nationwide BS make it clear to their panel firms that where a non-panel member firm is instructed by one of their mortgage applicants, the lender will appoint a panel firm to carry out its instructions and to liaise with the borrower's conveyancer. You also need to make the costs implications and potential for delay very clear to your client.

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 Legal & General Home Finance immediately. Second, 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 Legal & General Home Finance’s mortgage offer are correct. If they are not, please let Legal & General Home Finance know as soon as possible as it will be necessary for Legal & General Home Finance to check with the valuer whether the valuation needs to be revised. Legal & General Home Finance conveyancing panel solicitors are not expected to assume the role of valuer. Legal & General Home Finance are simply trying to ensure that the valuer has valued the property based on correct information. (III) Legal & General Home Finance 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. Legal & General Home Finance recommend that, if we send a copy of a valuation report that Legal & General Home Finance 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 survey or comprehensive survey. If you do not receive a copy of the valuation you can always ask for a copy of one from Legal & General Home Finance 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 Legal & General Home Finance conveyancing panel

6 borrowers attempt to locate a solicitor on the Legal & General Home Finance panel each month in Hendon. The lenderpanel directory service team who will show you how your firm can be identified by those searching for conveyancing in Hendon.

It would be advisable to supply details of the date of removal, information on the reason for removal, date of appeal and any reason given for reinstatement. This should not negatively affect your application but gives the Law Society a complete picture of what has gone on.

You would be advised to contact Legal & General Home Finance to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook has an explicit inquiry for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Legal & General Home Finance in their Part 2’s state: Please remember to quote your Legal & General Home Finance solicitors panel number.