National Counties Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

Lexsure only know of a couple of banks that operate a distinct conveyancing panel where the mortgage advance is over a certain amount. You should nevertheless check directly with National Counties Building Society. At one stage HSBC would only allow Sole practitioners to act for them where the mortgage was below £150,000. We are not sure if HSBC still operate such a condition. In your case it is best to check with National Counties Building Society

Criteria differ from lender to lender. We do not hold specific requirements relating to the questions raised as part of the application to be on the National Counties Building Society conveyancing panel. Typically lenders need to have full knowledge of a firm including (but not limited to):

List of fee-earners who are foreign qualified

List of all those staff who work within the conveyancing team

Charge registration history

Full disciplinary history for each conveyancing solicitor

SRA or equivalent regulator registration number where applicable

Full career history for each solicitor including admission date to the relevant Law Society

Whether the firm has ever applied for accreditation and the outcome of the application

House price discrepancies (declared to lender vs. registered at Land Registry)

Details of any accreditation e.g. Lexcel or

Full complaints history for each licensed conveyancer

In operating open conveyancing panels, lenders such as National Counties Building Society face a number of fraud and negligence risks. While there is no authoritative source of data on lender exposure to solicitor–led mortgage fraud, anecdotal evidence from lenders indicates exposure on individual cases are often in the millions of pounds. The National Fraud Authority estimates that £1bn per year is lost in mortgage -related frauds in total, which is seen as a conservative estimate.

These risks are exacerbated by the lack of a comprehensive set of data on all conveyancing firms (which, for the avoidance of doubt, would include solicitors and conveyancers across the UK) which is in a readily accessible format. Currently, lenders vet the suitability of their panel firms against a variety of disparate, incomplete and potentially inaccurate sets of information. One top 5 lender pointed out to us that it is almost impossible to track individual fraudsters who move from firm to firm, especially where they are no longer registered or no longer hold a valid practicing certificate.

National Counties Building Society and other lenders are in varying stages of reviewing their approach to vetting firms on their conveyancing panels, to ensure their ongoing exposure to unsuitable firms is reduced. There is also regulatory impetus on lenders to ensure that they have satisfactory oversight of their third party panels, including a due-diligence process.

As is the case with the Law Society the CLC has begun discussions with lenders and their representative bodies to see whether and how the risks that lenders wish to mitigate could be addressed through the regulatory framework rather than via ad hoc arrangements that can differ from lender to lender. It is likely that that the CLC have been in touch with lenders such as National Counties Building Society as well as the BSA.

The Law Society’s CQS membership is no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. Nevertheless the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a prerequisite for firms wishing to remain on their approved list of firms. A number of mortgage companies now use CQS as the starting point for Panel approval such as Santander.

You should get in touch with National Counties Building Society to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook has an express question for banks to reveal who to contact to obtain standard documents. National Counties Building Society in their Part 2’s state: Don’t forget to disclose your National Counties Building Society solicitors panel number.