The Mortgage Works Conveyancing Panel Information

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 The Mortgage Works conveyancing panel. Typically lenders need to have full knowledge of a firm including (but not limited to):

Areas of Law covered by the firm

Charge registration history

List of fee-earners who are foreign qualified

Whether any lender has ever made a claim against the firm’s PII cover

Whether the firm has ever applied for accreditation and the outcome of the application

Summary of annual accounts

SRA or equivalent regulator registration number where applicable

The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale

Number of lender conveyancing panels the firm is currently on

Automated alerting to inform lenders when there is a fundamental change to the firm (e.g. change of name)

You might expect The Mortgage Works via their Part 2 requirements to address this but the Handbook is silent on deadlines to send deeds. Do look at the Terms of The Mortgage Works’s Conveyancing Panel Appointment that you previously signed. For a number of banks these Terms contain a clause such as: ‘To keep us informed of the reasons for any delay in your being able to send the title deeds and documents we require to us within 3 months of completion or evidence of proof of registration within that period. (We will send reminders if the deeds have not been received but will not acknowledge receipt of deeds’ It is imperative to keep The Mortgage Works informed. Law firms can often compound their problems by not communicating with the lender when there is a delay or problem.

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

The Law Society’s CQS membership gives 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 remain on their panels. Some Lenders now use CQS as the starting point for Panel acceptance as is the case with Santander.

You need to contact The Mortgage Works to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook contains an individual question for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. The Mortgage Works in their Part 2’s state: You will need to quote your The Mortgage Works conveyancing panel reference.