Chelsea Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

We only know of two or three lenders that operate a separate approved solicitors panel where the mortgage advance is over a certain threshold. You should nevertheless check directly with Chelsea Building Society. At one stage HSBC would only allow Sole practitioners to act for them where the mortgage was below £150,000. We are not sure if HSBC still operate such a condition. In your case it is best to check with Chelsea Building Society

Each lender has different criteria. We do not hold specific requirements relating to the questions raised as part of the application to be on the Chelsea Building Society conveyancing panel. Typically lenders need to have full knowledge of a firm including (but not limited to):

and Conveyancing Quality Scheme

Whether the firm has ever applied for accreditation and the outcome of the application

List of all solicitors within firm

Full complaints history for each licensed conveyancer

House price discrepancies (declared to lender vs. registered at Land Registry)

The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale

Solicitor

Whether the firm has ever accepted instructions in respect of property clubs and investment schemes

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

Firm name, address and contact details including all branches (including evidence of existence through risk-based physical visits and Google Streetview checks)

We can't comment specifically on Chelsea Building Society. 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 dispute with the lender he 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.

With banks and solicitors working so closely with one another it is surprising that there has not been greater demand for the introduction of a bit of transparency regarding not just the figures for the Chelsea Building Society conveyancing panel but for all lender panels

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 Chelsea Building Society solicitor panel membership. Please remember that it is always important that you complete your insurance forms accurately.

You would be advised to communicate with Chelsea Building Society to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook includes an individual section for banks to enumerate who to contact to obtain standard documents. Chelsea Building Society in their Part 2’s state: You will need to disclose your Chelsea Building Society solicitors panel number.