Rely Mortgages Conveyancing Panel Information

The Council of Mortgage Lenders, along with Rely Mortgages and other stakeholders created a standard set of instructions where a solicitor is representing a lender such as Rely Mortgages alone in a residential conveyancing matter. These requirements are contained at Part 3 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook and are to be followed in conjunction with Part I and II. The CML have published an example requirements letter to the borrower’s conveyancer for adaptation by the lender's conveyancer, and sets out to the borrower's conveyancer, the documentary and information requirements of the lender's panel solicitor.

The Scottish Law Society has suggested that solicitors should check their lender panel status before accepting client instructions to act. The advice is lender-agnostic as it does not relate specifically to solicitors on the Rely Mortgages conveyancing panel. The recommendation arises from the practice of a number of mortgage lenders who remove solicitors from their panels without prior notice as part of their panel management system, which can lead to some solicitors discovering this only once instructed. This is sensible advice as a client finding out midway through a transaction that their lawyer is not on the approved lender panel is very frustrating and can lead to complaints. Many online consumer forums contain posts where someone is complaining about finding that their lawyer is not on a lender conveyancing panel. Such forums include mumsnet.com

The majority of lenders do not operate a specific buy to let conveyancing panel but we are hearing about a few that do. We do not know what the position is with Rely Mortgages as at todays date. If you're about to receive instructions from a client on a buy to let purchase with a mortgage from Rely Mortgages we suggest that you call Rely Mortgages to check the position.

What you should do largely depends on the reason that your firm has been removed off the Rely Mortgages conveyancing panel. The top 3 reasons are as follows:

1. lack of transactions
2. the lawyer is a sole practitioner
3. as part of the HSBC panel reduction.

In these three circumstances it is unlikely that you would expected to take any action. Disclosure and other compliance considerations are more likely to be relevant if the reason for removal is due to breaches of lender requirements or allegations of fraud or negligence. Whether the reasoning should trigger a disclosable 'material' breach will depend on the firm and the circumstances around possible failures to comply with the SRA Authorisation Rules, and the SRA will judge each case on its own merits. Factors such as the detriment or risk of detriment to clients, the scale of the issue and overall impact on the firm will need to be considered in deciding whether a failure is 'material'. As the compliance officer you will need systems to identify patterns of breaches. Even if you don't consider there to be regulatory implications the firms COFA should give some thought to whether she/he needs to take any action as result of being removed from the Rely Mortgages conveyancing panel.

You should provide 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 firm’s application but gives the Law Society viability as to what has gone on.

You need to contact Rely Mortgages to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook incorporates an express inquiry for lenders to reveal who to contact to obtain standard documents. Rely Mortgages in their Part 2’s state: You will need to disclose your Rely Mortgages conveyancing panel number.