Intelligent Finance Conveyancing Panel Information

No such training is arranged by the CML although they do arrange a number of useful legal related conferences which are attended by firms on the Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel. It is our intention to run specific lender focused seminars in the coming months including a webinar on Intelligent Finance’s Part 2 requirements. Solicitors on the Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel are welcome. Information about the webinar will be made available as part of the LENDERmonitor Alerts.

The Law Society of Scotland has suggested that solicitors should check their panel status with lenders before accepting client instructions to act. The advice is lender-agnostic as it does not relate specifically to solicitors on the Intelligent Finance 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

We can't comment specifically on Intelligent Finance. 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.

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 approved list of firms. A number of Lenders now use CQS as the starting point for Panel membership as is the case with Astra Mortgages.

You should communicate with Intelligent Finance to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook incorporates an express question for banks to enumerate who to contact to obtain standard documents. Intelligent Finance in their Part 2’s state: Please remember to disclose the firm’s Intelligent Finance solicitors panel number.