Scottish Widows Conveyancing Panel Information

We have come across many solicitors who feel they have been removed from lenders’ panels without an explanation or a good reason. Given that lenders have distanced themselves from creating a standardised appeals process for brokers, it is highly unlikely that an appeals process will be introduced for lawyers. Commenting on the call by brokers to have a standardised process, the CML said’ “While we understand that some lenders do have an appeals process, it would not be appropriate for a trade body such as the CML to seek to be prescriptive about such a process.” Some lenders do, however, set out an appeals policy. The Law Society does have information on its site that may be of assistance. If you would like to talk to one of our compliance experts about our Lender Panel Protection Service, please click here .

The Scottish Law Society has advised that solicitors should check their lender panel status prior to accepting client instructions to act. The advice is lender-agnostic since it does not relate specifically to solicitors on the Scottish Widows conveyancing panel. Because a number of mortgage lenders remove solicitors from their panels without prior notice as part of their panel management system, some solicitors discover their removal too late to be effective. Checking one’s legal panel status is sensible advice because a client who finds his lawyer is not on the approved lender panel is very frustrating and can lead to complaints as seen on online consumer forums. Such forums include moneysavingexpert.com

In operating open conveyancing panels, lenders such as Scottish Widows 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), 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 out of the top five lenders 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.

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

Yes the Policy search does track changes to the Scottish Widows UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook P2 for Scotland. The search is free and very simple to use. Please click here to order a search.