Coutts & Co Conveyancing Panel Information

Lexsure has not been advised of any intention on the part of the CML to develop such a register.

The answer to this question really depends on the reason that your firm has been removed off the Coutts & Co conveyancing panel. The top 3 reasons are as follows:

1. lack of transactions
2. the lawyer is a sole practitioner
3. as part of the HSBC panel reduction.

In these three circumstances it is unlikely that you would expected to take any action. Disclosure and other compliance considerations are more likely to be relevant if the reason for removal is due to breaches of lender requirements or allegations of fraud or negligence. Whether the reasoning should trigger a disclosable 'material' breach will depend on the firm and the circumstances around possible failures to comply with the SRA Authorisation Rules, and the SRA will judge each case on its own merits. Factors such as the detriment or risk of detriment to clients, the scale of the issue and overall impact on the firm will need to be considered in deciding whether a failure is 'material'. As the COLP you will need systems to identify patterns of breaches. Even if you don't consider there to be regulatory implications the firms COFA should give some thought to whether she/he needs to take any action as result of being removed from the Coutts & Co conveyancing panel.

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

13 potential conveyancing clients attempt to locate a conveyancer on the Coutts & Co panel every 4 weeks in Hendon. Please contact the team at lenderpanel.com to see how your firm can be found by those searching for conveyancing in Hendon.

In this situation please explain on the form what steps you have taken to discover the reasons behind cancellation of your Coutts & Co 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 advising you as to their reasons?

You should communicate with Coutts & Co to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook contains a specific inquiry for lenders to enumerate who to contact to obtain standard documents. Coutts & Co in their Part 2’s state: Don’t forget to quote the firm’s Coutts & Co solicitors panel reference.