West Bromwich 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 West Bromwich Building Society solicitor panel appointment.

West Bromwich Building Society ‘s answer to this question can be found at section B.3 of their BSA Mortgage Instructions which states:

We would not expect to be advised of any intention on the part of the BSA to promote such a search facility .

If you are a property lawyer and have a concern relating to the instructions, you should make contact with West Bromwich Building Society. The BSA will not advise or comment on specific queries relating to West Bromwich Building Society or other lenders.

The fact of the matter is that estate agents will be feeling the pain if their clients start out on the buying process using a solicitor 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 solicitors lawyers.

Lexsure only know of a couple of lenders that operate a distinct conveyancing panel where the mortgage advance is over a certain amount. You should nevertheless check directly with West Bromwich Building Society. 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 West Bromwich Building Society

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

• Full disciplinary history for each conveyancing solicitor
• Number of partners per branch of the firm
• Details of any accreditation e.g. Lexcel and/or Conveyancing Quality Scheme
• Structure of firm and, where applicable, its group
• House price discrepancies (declared to lender vs. registered at Land Registry)
• Summary of annual accounts
• 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 management
• Full complaints history for each conveyancing solicitor
• Whether the firm has ever accepted instructions in respect of property clubs and investment schemes

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