Ecology Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

The criteria to join the Ecology Building Society conveyancing panel is likely to be fairly detailed and is unlikely to include signing up to LENDERmonitor alerts.

You might expect Ecology Building Society via their Part 2 requirements to address this but the Handbook is silent on time frames. You need to look at the Terms of Ecology Building Society’s Conveyancing Panel Appointment that you previously signed. For many lender's these Terms have a provision such as: ‘To keep us informed of the reasons for any delay in your being able to send the title deeds and documents we require to us within 3 months of completion or evidence of proof of registration within that period. (We will send reminders if the deeds have not been received but will not acknowledge receipt of deeds’ It is important to keep Ecology Building Society updated. Law firms can often compound their problems by not communicating with the lender when there is a delay or problem.

There are many reports available, five of which are as follows:

• Number of conveyancing cases by lender
• Evidence of undertaking logs
• Current and historic missed priority dates
• Buy to Let transactions
• Average mortgage advance

Please tread carefully here as what you are suggesting may not be acceptable to the mortgage company. It is possible that you (as a non-panel firm) or the mortgage applicant are not entitled instruct a panel firm of your choice. An increasing amount of lenders are making it clear to their panel firms that where a non-panel member firm is instructed by one of their mortgage applicants, the lender must appoint a panel firm to carry out its instructions and to liaise with the borrower's conveyancer. You also need to make the costs implications and potential for delay very clear to your client.

In this situation please clarify on the form what action you have taken to discover the reasons behind cancellation of your Ecology Building Society panel status. 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 informing you as to why they reached this decision?

You need to get in touch with Ecology Building Society to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook incorporates an express section for lenders to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Ecology Building Society in their Part 2’s state: You will need to quote your Ecology Building Society conveyancing panel reference.