RBS- First Active Conveyancing Panel Information

You might expect RBS- First Active via their Part 2 requirements to address this but the Handbook makes no mention on deadlines to send deeds. You need to look at the Terms of RBS- First Active’s Conveyancing Panel Appointment that you are bound by. For a number of banks these Terms contain 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 RBS- First Active informed. 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:

• Analysis as to the nature of clients (e.g.existing/new/seen in person)
• Disclosure/Notification to Lender analysis indicating frequency and nature of disclosures - to include benchmarking analysis against aggregate data
• Number of conveyancing cases by lender
• The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale/purchase and remortgage)
• Average time frame to send deeds to the lender (calculated from completion date or title registration)

During 2013, 105 sections of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook P2 were changed by RBS- First Active. Some changes are more important than others but as a firm on the RBS- First Active conveyancing panel you are of course obliged to comply with individual lender requirements, as set out in Part II of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook. Locktons have recently pointed out in an article that non-compliance with Part 2 requirements account for a number of high value claims, and it is therefore important to be aware of any particularly onerous terms that an individual lender may impose.

Remember: UK Finance requirements are not guidelines; they are the lender client’s instructions.

You will be aware of the trend in recent years for lenders such as RBS- First Active 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 RBS- First Active panel. The situation that you find yourself in is where your client’s purchaser has his/her own lawyer and RBS- First Active have appointed a separate lawyer to act on their behalf where the new UK Finance Part 3 requirements apply. Section 11.1 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook Part 3 requires RBS- First Active’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 RBS- First Active. You will no doubt be required to undertake directly to RBS- First Active’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 RBS- First Active conveyancing panel.

In this situation please explain on the application what steps you have taken to find out the reasons behind cancellation of your RBS- First Active panel status. In particular please provide details if you have received communications from the lender. E.G. before termination of your panel membership did you receive any letters or calls from the lender advising you as to their reasons?

You need to get in touch with RBS- First Active to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook incorporates an explicit question for banks to establish who to contact to obtain standard documents. RBS- First Active in their Part 2’s state: It helps to disclose your RBS- First Active solicitors panel reference.