Accord Mortgages Conveyancing Panel Information

The Council of Mortgage Lenders, along with Accord Mortgages and other stakeholders developed a standard set of instructions where a conveyancer is representing a lender such as Accord Mortgages alone in a residential conveyancing matter. These legal instructions are contained at Part III of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook and are to be followed in conjunction with Parts 1 & 2. The CML have published an example requirements letter to the borrower’s conveyancing solicitor for use by the lender's conveyancer, and sets out to the borrower's conveyancer, the documentary and information requirements of the lender's panel conveyancer.

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

You need to be careful here as what you are proposing may not be acceptable to the lender. It is possible that you (as a non-panel firm) or the mortgage applicant are not entitled instruct a panel firm of your choice. Many lenders make it clear to their panel firms that where a non-panel member firm is instructed by one of their mortgage applicants, the lender must appoint a panel firm to carry out its instructions and to liaise with the borrower's conveyancer. You also need to make the costs implications and potential for delay very clear to your client.

In the circumstances please clarify on the application what action you have taken to find out the reasons behind cancellation of your Accord Mortgages panel membership. 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 putting you on notice?

You should contact Accord Mortgages to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook has an explicit section for lenders to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Accord Mortgages in their Part 2’s state: It helps to quote the firm’s Accord Mortgages solicitors panel reference.