Darlington Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

No such training is arranged by the CML however they do organise a number of useful conveyancing related conferences which are attended by firms on the Darlington Building Society conveyancing panel. It is our intention to run specific lender focused seminars in the near future including a webinar on Darlington Building Society’s Part 2 requirements. Practitioners on the Darlington Building Society conveyancing panel will be invited. Information about the webinar will be made available as part of the LENDERmonitor P2 change Notifications.

The Scottish Law Society has suggested that solicitors should check their lender panel status prior to accepting client instructions to act. The advice is lender-agnostic as it does not relate specifically to solicitors on the Darlington Building Society conveyancing panel. The suggestion 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 mumsnet.com

In operating open conveyancing panels, lenders such as Darlington Building Society face a number of fraud and negligence risks. While there is no authoritative source of data on lender exposure to solicitor–led mortgage fraud, anecdotal evidence from lenders indicates exposure on individual cases are often in the millions of pounds. The National Fraud Authority estimates that £1bn per year is lost in mortgage -related frauds in total, which is seen as a conservative estimate.

These risks are exacerbated by the lack of a comprehensive set of data on all conveyancing firms (which, for the avoidance of doubt, would include solicitors and conveyancers across the UK) which is in a readily accessible format. Currently, lenders vet the suitability of their panel firms against a variety of disparate, incomplete and potentially inaccurate sets of information. One top 5 lender pointed out to us that it is almost impossible to track individual fraudsters who move from firm to firm, especially where they are no longer registered or no longer hold a valid practicing certificate.

Darlington Building Society and other lenders are in varying stages of reviewing their approach to vetting firms on their conveyancing panels, to ensure their ongoing exposure to unsuitable firms is reduced. There is also regulatory impetus on lenders to ensure that they have satisfactory oversight of their third party panels, including a due-diligence process.

When a solicitor is acting for both Darlington Building Society and borrower there is potential for conflicts to arise. You owe duties to both clients. All information received by you from your client is confidential and cannot be disclosed without the client’s consent. In the situation you find yourself in if the purchaser will not consent to the information being passed on to the lender the solicitor must cease to act for the Darlington Building Society and it may well be prudent you to cease to act for the purchaser as well. You can not tell the Darlington Building Society the reason for termination of the retainer over and above the fact that a conflict has arisen. The fact that you can no longer act should alert even the most somnambulistic of lenders that something is wrong with the borrower and/or purchase. The fact that you have disinstructed yourself should not affect your Darlington Building Society conveyancing panel status.

The Law Society’s CQS membership gives no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. Nevertheless the CML have indicated that it is likely to become a prerequisite for firms wishing to remain on their panels. Some Lenders now use the scheme as the starting point for Panel acceptance such as Astra Mortgages.

You need to get in touch with Darlington Building Society to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook has an individual question for lenders to set out who to contact to obtain standard documents. Darlington Building Society in their Part 2’s state: Please remember to disclose the firm’s Darlington Building Society conveyancing panel number.