Skipton Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

The information on this page is designed to keep solicitors and licensed conveyancers abreast of latest requirements changes by Skipton Building Society and to assist in remaining on the Skipton Building Society Solicitor Panel.

Skipton Building Society Solicitor Panel: Recently Asked Questions

Theoretically Skipton Building Society could request or audit my files as I am on the Skipton Building Society conveyancing panel. How should I respond in the event of such a demand?
We can't comment specifically on Skipton Building Society. Many major lenders are now introducing ‘file auditing’ as standard practice in relation to completed matters. This raises questions of confidentiality in relation to the borrower and the purpose to which the results of such audits will be put. The starting point is to remember that the file does not belong to your firm, it belongs to the ‘client’. But, of course, we will normally have two clients – the buyer and the lender - and you will owe a duty of confidentiality to each. So basically, you have to separate the file and just send the lender the parts solely relating to themselves. But, of course, as this will basically be correspondence with the lender, mortgage instructions etc.

Check with your COLP but a firm should not send the complete conveyancing file without the buyer client’s express consent – and if he is in arrears with the lender he is hardly likely to agree. However, if the lender can establish a prima facie case of fraud, then you may be under an obligation to disclose the whole file.

The emerging convention is that lenders are including an authority to disclose in loan application forms to counter this problem. Mortgage Express v Sawali, [2010] EWHC 3054 (Ch) indicates that such provisions are valid. Please click here for more information about that case.

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My practice have never been on the Skipton Building Society conveyancing panel as well other lenders. My clients, who have applied for a mortgage with Skipton Building Society would still like to instruct me even though I am not on the Skipton Building Society panel. Am I doing anything wrong is suggesting to my client that they use a firm down the road to act for Skipton Building Society on mortgage aspect of the conveyancing?
You need to be careful here as what you are intending may not be acceptable to the lender. It is possible that you (as a non-panel firm) or the mortgage applicant are not at liberty instruct a panel firm of your choice. An increasing amount of lenders are making it clear to their panel firms that where a non-panel member firm is instructed by one of their mortgage applicants, the lender must appoint a panel firm to carry out its instructions and to liaise with the borrower's conveyancing firm. You also need to make the costs implications and potential for delay very clear to your client.
We are acting for a seller of a property and we have received a letter from the buyers solicitors who are not on the Skipton Building Society conveyancing panel requesting that we undertake to send certain post-completion documents to a law firm on the approved solicitor list for Skipton Building Society. We have not come accross this before. Do we give the undertaking?
You will be aware of the trend in recent years for lenders such as Skipton Building Society 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 Skipton Building Society panel. The situation that you find yourself in is where your client’s purchaser has his/her own lawyer and Skipton Building Society 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 Skipton Building Society’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 Skipton Building Society. You will no doubt be required to undertake directly to Skipton Building Society’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 Skipton Building Society conveyancing panel.
My lawyers pass me the odd LENDERmonitor email but I don't see that many important changes. By way of illustration, I am on the Skipton Building Society conveyancing panel and receive a notification only advising of a change of address. Why is that of any relevance?
It is important that you take note of such changes because sending a communication or deeds to the wrong address can cause delays that might not only affect your borrower client but also impact your chances of staying on the Skipton Building Society conveyancing panel. Is possible next month that Skipton Building Society change their requirements as to where their panel firm send the deeds. Do you update the details in your CMS? Is this recorded anywhere? Is this communicated to the staff? By virtue of your COT Skipton Building Society you are giving assurances that you will send the relevant documents within 10 days of receiving the TID. Leaving to one side whether you are technically breaching an undertaking in sending it to the wrong address, you run the risk of Skipton Building Society suspending you off the panel because they are not receiving the deeds in accordance with the COT. It will not be a valid excuse to say that you sent it to an address that is no longer valid.
The firm I run is a Lexcel accredited firm on the Skipton Building Society conveyancing panel. Do you have ideas as to how we can market our practice as conducting conveyancing in Hendon on the Skipton Building Society panel?
15 borrowers search for a solicitor on the Skipton Building Society panel each month in Hendon. Feel free to contact the Lexsure team who will tell how your firm can be identified by those searching for conveyancing in Hendon.
Should CQS acceptance secure my firm’s acceptance on to lenders conveyancing panels?
CQS membership is no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. Nevertheless the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a prerequisite for firms wishing to join their approved list of conveyancing solicitors. A number of Lenders now use the scheme as the starting point for Panel acceptance as is the case with Santander.
Our practice is on the Skipton Building Society conveyancing panel and all set to complete a remortgage within the next week. I can not locate a Mortgage Deed for the client to execute. Who do I contact at Skipton Building Society to request substitute deeds?
You should get in touch with Skipton Building Society to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook includes a specific inquiry for banks to enumerate who to contact to obtain standard documents. Skipton Building Society in their Part 2’s state:
You will need to disclose the firm’s Skipton Building Society conveyancing panel reference.

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Average number of days to register title including a charge in favour of Skipton Building Society
This information relates to purchase only and not remortgages.
YearDays*
2024 [no data]
2023 59.4
2022 [no data]
2021 [no data]
2020 [no data]
2019 [no data]
* Data aggregated from sources including COMPLETIONmonitor