Together Personal Finance Conveyancing Panel Information

Many estate agents are feeling the pain if their clients start out on the conveyancing process having appointed a conveyancer who is not on the panel with the purchaser’s chosen lender. Many conveyancing firms are only discovering when they begin working on a case that they are no longer able to work with that lender. Given the inevitable resultant delays in the transaction the chances of an abortive deal increases dramatically. in the circumstances there is understandable anguish on the part of the estate agent as a result of the lost time should the client have to change lawyers.

As is the case with the Law Society the Council of Licensed Conveyancers has initiated discussions with lenders 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. We expect that that the CLC have been in touch with lenders such as Together Personal Finance in the recent past.

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

14 borrowers attempt to locate a solicitor on the Together Personal Finance panel on a monthly basis in Hendon. Please contact the team at lenderpanel.com to see how your firm can be listed by those searching for conveyancing in Hendon.

In the circumstances please explain on the form what steps you have taken to find out the reasons behind cancellation of your Together Personal Finance panel status. In particular please provide details if you have received communications from the lender. E.G. before cessation of your panel membership did you receive any letters or calls from the lender advising you as to their reasons?

You should contact Together Personal Finance to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook has a specific inquiry for banks to enumerate who to contact to obtain standard documents. Together Personal Finance in their Part 2’s state: Don’t forget to disclose the firm’s Together Personal Finance conveyancing panel reference.