Bluestone Mortgages Conveyancing Panel Information

The Council of Mortgage Lender requirements of Bluestone Mortgages are silent on this. Most mortgage companies address the issue of file retention via their Terms of panel appointment where they generally provide that for evidential purposes, the firm must keep the file for a minimum six years from the date of the mortgage. Data imagining is normally suitable compliance with this requirement. Many lenders point out in that it is the practice of some fraudsters to demand the conveyancing file on completion in order to destroy evidence that may later be used against them. It is therefore important to retain these documents to protect Bluestone Mortgages’s interest. To be absolutely sure of Bluestone Mortgages requirements in this regard please check the Terms and Conditions of Bluestone Mortgages’s conveyancing panel appointment.

We can't comment specifically on Bluestone Mortgages. Many major lenders are now introducing ‘file auditing’ as standard practice in relation to completed matters. This raises questions of confidentiality in relation to the buyer client and the purpose to which the results of such audits will be put. The starting point is to remember that the file does not belong to your firm, it belongs to the ‘client’. But, of course, we will normally have two clients – the buyer and the lender - and you will owe a duty of confidentiality to each. So basically, you have to separate the file and just send the lender the parts solely relating to themselves. But, of course, as this will basically be correspondence with the lender, mortgage instructions etc.

Check with your COLP but a firm should not send the complete conveyancing file without the buyer client’s express consent – and if she is in arrears with the lender she is hardly likely to agree. However, if the lender can establish a prima facie case of fraud, then you may be under an obligation to disclose the whole file.

The emerging convention is that lenders are including an authority to disclose in loan application forms to counter this problem. Mortgage Express v Sawali, [2010] EWHC 3054 (Ch) indicates that such provisions are valid. Please click here for more information about that case.

The majority of lenders do not operate a specific buy to let conveyancing panel but we are hearing about a few that do. We do not know what the position is with Bluestone Mortgages as at todays date. If you're about to receive instructions from a client on a buy to let purchase with a mortgage from Bluestone Mortgages we suggest that you call Bluestone Mortgages to check the position.

15 people attempt to locate a conveyancer on the Bluestone Mortgages panel on a monthly basis in Hendon. Feel free to contact the Lexsure team who will tell how your firm can be listed by those searching for conveyancing in Hendon.

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 Bluestone Mortgages solicitor panel membership. Please remember that it is always important that you complete your insurance forms accurately.

You would be advised to contact Bluestone Mortgages to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook includes an explicit section for banks to enumerate who to contact to obtain standard documents. Bluestone Mortgages in their Part 2’s state: You will need to quote your Bluestone Mortgages conveyancing panel number.