State Bank of India UK Conveyancing Panel Information

Lexsure only know of two or three lenders that operate a separate conveyancing panel where the mortgage advance is over a certain amount. You should nevertheless check directly with State Bank of India UK. At one stage HSBC would only allow Sole practitioners to act for them where the mortgage was below £150,000. We are not sure if HSBC still operate such a condition. In your case it is best to check with State Bank of India UK

Criteria differ from lender to lender. We do not hold specific requirements relating to the questions raised as part of the application to be on the State Bank of India UK conveyancing panel. Typically lenders need to have full knowledge of a firm including (but not limited to):

List of fee-earners who are foreign qualified

Areas of Law covered by the firm

Whether the firm is able to operate in other jurisdictions

Number of lender conveyancing panels the firm is currently on

Full disciplinary history for each conveyancing solicitor

PII Cover details, including, if relevant, whether the firm is or has been in the assigned risks pool and structure of cover – basic

Full complaints history for each licensed conveyancer

Charge registration history

List of all Licensed Conveyancers within firm

Structure of firm and, where applicable, its group

As is the case with the Law Society the Council of Licensed Conveyancers has entered dialogue with banks and their representative bodies to see whether and how the risks that lenders wish to mitigate could be addressed through the regulatory framework rather than via ad hoc arrangements that can differ from lender to lender. It is likely that that the CLC have been in touch with lenders such as State Bank of India UK in the recent past.

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

CQS accreditation 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 firms. A number of mortgage companies now use CQS as the starting point for Panel membership as is the case with Astra Mortgages.

You would be advised to get in touch with State Bank of India UK to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook contains an individual section for banks to set out who to contact to obtain standard documents. State Bank of India UK in their Part 2’s state: You will need to quote the firm’s State Bank of India UK conveyancing panel number.