Precise Mortgages Conveyancing Panel Information

One might ordinarily expect Precise Mortgages via their Part Two conditions to address this but the Handbook makes no mention on deadlines to send deeds. You need to look at the Terms of Precise Mortgages’s Conveyancing Panel Appointment that you are bound by. For many lender's these Terms include a clause along the following lines: ‘To keep us informed of the reasons for any delay in your being able to send the title deeds and documents we require to us within 3 months of completion or evidence of proof of registration within that period. (We will send reminders if the deeds have not been received but will not acknowledge receipt of deeds’ It is important to keep Precise Mortgages updated. Law firms can often compound their problems by not communicating with the lender when there is a delay or problem.

There are many reports available, five of which are as follows:

• Average time frame to send deeds to the lender (calculated from completion date or title registration)
• Analysis as to the nature of clients (e.g.existing/new/seen in person)
• Buy to Let transactions
• The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale/purchase and remortgage)
• Current and historic missed priority dates

When a solicitor is acting for both Precise Mortgages and borrower there is potential for conflicts to arise. You owe duties to both clients. All information received by you from your client is confidential and cannot be disclosed without the client’s consent. In the situation you find yourself in if the purchaser will not consent to the information being passed on to the lender the solicitor must cease to act for the Precise Mortgages and it may well be prudent you to cease to act for the purchaser as well. You can not tell the Precise Mortgages the reason for termination of the retainer over and above the fact that a conflict has arisen. The fact that you can no longer act should alert even the most somnambulistic of lenders that something is wrong with the borrower and/or purchase. The fact that you have disinstructed yourself should not affect your Precise Mortgages conveyancing panel status.

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

In this situation please clarify on the application what action you have taken to find out the reasons behind cancellation of your Precise Mortgages panel membership. 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 advising you as to their reasons?

You need to communicate with Precise Mortgages to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook contains an individual section for lenders to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Precise Mortgages in their Part 2’s state: Please remember to quote your Precise Mortgages conveyancing panel number.