Sainsbury's Bank Conveyancing Panel Information

The Council of Mortgage Lenders, together with Sainsbury's Bank and other members developed a standard set of requirements where a conveyancer is acting for a lender such as Sainsbury's Bank alone in a residential conveyancing transaction. These requirements are contained at Part 3 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook and are to be followed together with Parts 1 & 2. 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 lawyer.

What you should do largely depends on the reason that your firm has been removed off the Sainsbury's Bank 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 Sainsbury's Bank conveyancing panel.

When a solicitor is acting for both Sainsbury's Bank 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 Sainsbury's Bank and it may well be prudent you to cease to act for the purchaser as well. You can not tell the Sainsbury's Bank 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 Sainsbury's Bank conveyancing panel status.

For most lenders participation on the lender's panel of conveyancers is at the absolute discretion of the the lender. Many lenders reserve the right to accept or reject any application without giving any reason. You should check your original application to join the Sainsbury's Bank conveyancing panel to see if you are entitled to a reason.

In the circumstances please explain on the form what action you have taken to discover the reasons behind cancellation of your Sainsbury's Bank panel status. In particular please provide details if you have received communications from the lender. E.G. before cessation of your panel membership did you receive any letters or calls from the lender informing you as to why they reached this decision?

You need to get in touch with Sainsbury's Bank to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook has an explicit question for lenders to reveal who to contact to obtain standard documents. Sainsbury's Bank in their Part 2’s state: You will need to quote the firm’s Sainsbury's Bank solicitors panel reference.