Landbay Partners Conveyancing Panel Information

Landbay Partners make no specific obligation to carry out any of the searches listed. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook simply states that ‘you must ensure that any other searches which may be appropriate to the particular property, taking into account its locality and other features are carried out’.

Please note that most ‘less usual searches’ (as described in the Law Society’s Conveyancing Handbook) are not optional as far as Landbay Partners are concerned if they are ‘appropriate’. Most lenders will not require environmental searches (you should Check Part 2 of UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook to be sure), but you are obliged to explain risks and availability to the client.

Ground stability, Plansearch,flood searches as well as the searches listed in the question are optional – but only to the extent that you have allowed the borrower client to make an informed choice. Regardless of whether there is a mortgage, If you have not advised the client that these (and other) searches are available and what risks they cover, then you will be liable if the client suffers loss through not conducting one. Is this covered within your Terms of Engagement or Report on Title?

One search supplier lists over 72 conveyancing searches – do you know what all of them are and when they may be relevant? If you are unsure as to which searches are appropriate based on location contact your search provider or call one of the leading search companies such as STL.

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

Summary of annual accounts

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

List of all solicitors within firm

Number of partners per branch of the firm

conveyancer client account(s) details

Full career history for each solicitor including admission date to the relevant Law Society

Full complaints history for each conveyancing solicitor

SRA or equivalent regulator registration number where applicable

top-up split and history of any refusals

Structure of firm and, where applicable, its group

The answer to this question really depends on the reason that your firm has been removed off the Landbay Partners 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 compliance officer you will need systems to identify patterns of breaches. Even if you don't consider there to be regulatory implications the firms COFA should give some thought to whether she/he needs to take any action as result of being removed from the Landbay Partners conveyancing panel.

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

Your insurance brokers are your best port of call to address this question. The chances are that on the basis that you have not been removed for fraud or negligence reasons that there will be little or no impact. The main reason why a firm would be removed off of a lender panel is due to low volume of conveyancing cases although there may be a number of criteria for Landbay Partners solicitor panel membership. Please remember that it is always important that you complete your insurance forms accurately.

You should get in touch with Landbay Partners to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook incorporates an express section for banks to reveal who to contact to obtain standard documents. Landbay Partners in their Part 2’s state: Always remember to disclose the firm’s Landbay Partners conveyancing panel number.