Bradford & Bingley Conveyancing Panel Information

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

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

For most lenders participation on the lender's panel of conveyancers is at the absolute discretion of the the lender. Many lenders reserve the right to accept or reject any application without giving any reason. You should check your original application to join the Bradford & Bingley conveyancing panel to see if you are entitled to a reason.

Assuming that your firm in is on the Bradford & Bingley conveyancing panel and you are representing them in relation to a leasehold property, you must report to them if it becomes apparent that the landlord is either absent or insolvent. If Bradford & Bingley are to lend, they may require indemnity insurance. In any event,you will need to check Bradford & Bingley’s specific requirements. Notwithstanding whether Bradford & Bingley will lend in such circumstances you still need to advise the borrower (unless you are acting for Bradford & Bingley alone) as to the risks of buying a property with an insolvent or absentee landlord.

In this situation please clarify on the application what steps you have taken to discover the reasons behind cancellation of your Bradford & Bingley panel membership. In particular please provide details if you have received communications from the lender. E.G. before revocation of your panel membership did you receive any letters or calls from the lender advising you as to their reasons?

You would be advised to contact Bradford & Bingley to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook includes a specific section for banks to establish who to contact to obtain standard documents. Bradford & Bingley in their Part 2’s state: Please remember to disclose the firm’s Bradford & Bingley conveyancing panel number.