Holmesdale Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

Section 16.2.1 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook applicable to a solicitor on the Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel reads ‘Our mortgage secures further advances. Consequently, when a further advance is required for alterations or improvements to the property we will not normally instruct a member of our conveyancing panel but if you are instructed the appropriate provisions of this Handbook will apply’.

The Council of Licensed Conveyancers has initiated discussions with banks and their representative bodies to see whether and how the risks that lenders wish to mitigate could be addressed through the regulatory framework rather than via ad hoc arrangements that can differ from lender to lender. It is likely that that the CLC have been in touch with lenders such as Holmesdale Building Society in recent years.

When a solicitor is acting for both Holmesdale 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 Holmesdale Building Society and it may well be prudent you to cease to act for the purchaser as well. You can not tell the Holmesdale 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 Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel status.

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

In this situation please explain on the form what action you have taken to discover the reasons behind cancellation of your Holmesdale Building Society 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 would be advised to communicate with Holmesdale Building Society to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook contains an explicit inquiry for banks to enumerate who to contact to obtain standard documents. Holmesdale Building Society in their Part 2’s state: You will need to disclose your Holmesdale Building Society conveyancing panel number.