New Street Mortgages Conveyancing Panel Information

The CLC has entered dialogue 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 New Street Mortgages in the recent past.

During 2013, 0 sections of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook P2 were changed by New Street Mortgages. Some changes are more important than others but as a firm on the New Street Mortgages conveyancing panel you are of course obliged to comply with individual lender requirements, as set out in Part II of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook. Locktons have recently pointed out in an article that non-compliance with Part 2 requirements account for a number of high value claims, and it is therefore important to be aware of any particularly onerous terms that an individual lender may impose.

Remember: CML requirements are not guidelines; they are the lender client’s instructions.

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

On the basis that your firm in is on the New Street Mortgages conveyancing panel and you are instructed by 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 New Street Mortgages are to lend, they may require indemnity insurance. In any event,you will need to check New Street Mortgages’s specific requirements. Notwithstanding whether New Street Mortgages will lend in such circumstances you still need to advise the borrower (unless you are acting for New Street Mortgages alone) as to the risks of buying a property with an insolvent or absentee landlord.

In the circumstances please explain on the form what action you have taken to find out the reasons behind cancellation of your New Street Mortgages panel status. In particular please provide details if you have received communications from the lender. E.G. before termination of your panel membership did you receive any letters or calls from the lender informing you as to why they reached this decision?

You should contact New Street Mortgages to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook contains an express question for lenders to establish who to contact to obtain standard documents. New Street Mortgages in their Part 2’s state: Please remember to quote the firm’s New Street Mortgages conveyancing panel reference.