Handelsbanken Conveyancing Panel Information

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 Handelsbanken conveyancing panel. Typically lenders need to have full knowledge of a firm including (but not limited to):

Full disciplinary history for each conveyancing solicitor

Whether any lender has ever made a claim against the firm’s PII cover

Automated alerting to inform lenders when there is a fundamental change to the firm (e.g. change of management)

and Conveyancing Quality Scheme

Number of partners per branch of the firm

Full complaints history for each licensed conveyancer

Full disciplinary history for each licensed conveyancer

List of all those staff who work within the conveyancing team

List of all solicitors within firm

Whether the firm has ever knowingly accepted instructions on transactions involving Sale and Rent Back, Back to Back, Exchange and Delayed Completion and Lease Option, Below Market Value.

We can't comment specifically on Handelsbanken. 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 borrower 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 arrears with the lender she 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.

During 2013, 0 sections of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook P2 were changed by Handelsbanken. Some changes are more important than others but as a firm on the Handelsbanken 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: CML requirements are not guidelines; they are the lender client’s instructions.

You should supply details of the date of removal, information on the reason for removal, date of appeal and any reason given for reinstatement. This should not negatively affect your firm’s application but gives the CQS team a complete picture of what has happened.

You should communicate with Handelsbanken to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook includes an express question for banks to reveal who to contact to obtain standard documents. Handelsbanken in their Part 2’s state: Always remember to quote your Handelsbanken solicitors panel number.