Bank of Scotland Private Conveyancing Panel Information

The Council of Mortgage Lenders is an association rather than a regulator and therefore will not advise on complaints against lenders. You can of course contact Lexsure to see if we can assist.

The Scottish Law Society has advised that solicitors should check their panel status with lenders prior to accepting client instructions to act. The advice is lender-agnostic as it does not relate specifically to solicitors on the Bank of Scotland Private conveyancing panel. The recommendation arises from the practice of a number of mortgage lenders who remove solicitors from their panels without prior notice as part of their panel management system, which can lead to some solicitors discovering this only once instructed. This is sensible advice as a client finding out midway through a transaction that their lawyer is not on the approved lender panel is very frustrating and can lead to complaints. Many online consumer forums contain posts where someone is complaining about finding that their lawyer is not on a lender conveyancing panel. Such forums include moneysavingexpert.com

There are many reports available, five of which are as follows:

• The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale/purchase and remortgage)
• Current and historic missed priority dates
• Average time frame to send deeds to the lender (calculated from completion date or title registration)
• Average time frame to register charges at the Land Registry
• Evidence of undertaking logs

During 2013, 0 sections of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook P2 were changed by Bank of Scotland Private. Some changes are more important than others but as a firm on the Bank of Scotland Private conveyancing panel you are of course obliged to comply with individual lender requirements, as set out in Part II of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook. Locktons have recently pointed out in an article that non-compliance with Part 2 requirements account for a number of high value claims, and it is therefore important to be aware of any particularly onerous terms that an individual lender may impose.

Remember: UK Finance requirements are not guidelines; they are the lender client’s instructions.

You should provide details of the date of removal, information on the reason for removal, date of appeal and any reason given for reinstatement. This should not negatively affect your firm’s application but gives the CQS team a complete picture of what has occured.

You would be advised to contact Bank of Scotland Private to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook contains a specific section for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Bank of Scotland Private in their Part 2’s state: It helps to quote your Bank of Scotland Private solicitors panel number.