Teachers Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

Unlike the CML the Building Society Mortgage Instructions deal with this. Section A.12 states ‘In order to act on our behalf your firm or company must be a member of our conveyancing panel provided we are a society that operates one – see specific requirements for details of our arrangements. The Special Requirements state:

You must also comply with the terms and conditions of your Teachers Building Society solicitor panel appointment.

The criteria to join the Teachers Building Society conveyancing panel is likely to be fairly detailed and is unlikely to include signing up to LENDERmonitor alerts.

The requirements to join the Teachers Building Society conveyancing panel is likely to be fairly detailed and is unlikely to include signing up to LENDERmonitor alerts.

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 Teachers Building Society conveyancing panel. Typically lenders need to have full knowledge of a firm including (but not limited to):

• Whether the firm is able to operate in other jurisdictions
• Summary of annual accounts
• Structure of firm and, where applicable, its group
• PII Cover details, including, if relevant, whether the firm is or has been in the assigned risks pool and structure of cover – basic split and history of any refusals
• Full complaints history for each conveyancing solicitor
• Full career history for each licensed conveyancer including registration date with Council of Licensed Conveyancers
• SRA or equivalent regulator registration number where applicable
• Charge registration history
• Full career history for each solicitor including admission date to the relevant Law Society

What you should do largely depends on the reason that your firm has been removed off the Teachers Building Society 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 COLP you will need systems to identify patterns of breaches. Even if you don't consider there to be regulatory implications, the firms COFA needs to consider whether he or she needs to take any action as result of being removed from the conveyancing panel of Teachers Building Society.

The key here is the caveat ‘more onerous’.

You have to try and take an objective view as to whether the Terms relating to the Teachers Building Society conveyancing appointment (or other terms for other lenders) are ‘more onerous’ than the BSA Mortgage Instructions. Depending on the Terms you may need to provide details on your renewal form. If you are in any doubt please call your broker to discuss before completing the answer.

Participation on the lender's panel of conveyancers is at the absolute discretion of the the lender. The days of open panels are now long gone. Many lenders reserve the right to accept or reject any application without giving any reason. You should check your original application to join the Teachers Building Society conveyancing panel to see if you are entitled to a reason.

BSA lenders do not come within the top 20 lenders in terms of frequency of questions. The most popular lender panels in terms of questions are as follows:

• Santander Conveyancing Panel
• National Westminster Bank Conveyancing Panel
• Royal Bank of Scotland Conveyancing Panel
• HSBC Conveyancing Panel
• Lloyds Conveyancing Panel