Mortgage Agency Services Conveyancing Panel Information

The concern here is if you are expect to enter into ‘more onerous’ conditions that than the Handbook obligations. You have to try and take an objective view as to whether the Terms relating to the Mortgage Agency Services conveyancing appointment (or other terms for other lenders) are ‘more onerous’ than the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook Conditions. Depending on the Terms you may need to provide details on your renewal form. If you are in any doubt please call your broker to discuss before moving forward on this question.

You will be aware of the trend in recent years for lenders such as Mortgage Agency Services 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 Mortgage Agency Services panel. The situation that you find yourself in is where your client’s purchaser has his/her own lawyer and Mortgage Agency Services 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 Mortgage Agency Services’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 Mortgage Agency Services. You will no doubt be required to undertake directly to Mortgage Agency Services’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 Mortgage Agency Services conveyancing panel.

There are various requirements are to followed if you wish to comply with your lender client’s instructions as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook. First, 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 Mortgage Agency Services immediately. (II) 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 Mortgage Agency Services’s mortgage offer are correct. If they are not, please let Mortgage Agency Services know as soon as possible as it will be necessary for Mortgage Agency Services to check with the valuer whether the valuation needs to be revised. Mortgage Agency Services conveyancing panel solicitors are not expected to assume the role of valuer. Mortgage Agency Services are simply trying to ensure that the valuer has valued the property based on correct information. Thirdly, Mortgage Agency Services 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. Mortgage Agency Services recommend that, if we send a copy of a valuation report that Mortgage Agency Services 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 Mortgage Agency Services 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 Mortgage Agency Services conveyancing panel

Given that your practice in is on the Mortgage Agency Services conveyancing panel and you are representing them in relation to a leasehold property, you must report to them if it becomes apparent that the landlord is either absent or insolvent. If Mortgage Agency Services are to lend, they may require indemnity insurance. In any event,you will need to check Mortgage Agency Services’s specific requirements. Notwithstanding whether Mortgage Agency Services will lend in such circumstances you still need to advise the borrower (unless you are acting for Mortgage Agency Services alone) as to the risks of buying a property with an insolvent or absentee freeholder.

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 Mortgage Agency Services solicitor panel membership. Please remember that it is always important that you complete your insurance forms accurately.

You should contact Mortgage Agency Services to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook includes an express question for banks to establish who to contact to obtain standard documents. Mortgage Agency Services in their Part 2’s state: It is likely that you will need to disclose your Mortgage Agency Services conveyancing panel number.