Intelligent Finance Conveyancing Panel Information

The Council of Mortgage Lenders, along with Intelligent Finance and other stakeholders developed a standard set of requirements where a solicitor is representing a lender such as Intelligent Finance alone in a residential conveyancing matter. These obligations are contained at Part III of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook and are to be read together with Parts 1 & 2. The CML have published an example requirements letter to the borrower’s conveyancer for adaptation by the lender's conveyancer, and sets out to the borrower's conveyancer, the documentary and information requirements of the lender's panel conveyancer.

The Scottish Law Society has advised 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 moneysavingexpert.com

You might expect Intelligent Finance via their Part 2 conditions to address this but the Handbook is silent on deadlines to send deeds. Do look at the Terms of Intelligent Finance’s Conveyancing Panel Appointment that you previously signed. For a number of banks these Terms have a clause 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 Intelligent Finance informed. Law firms can often compound their problems by not communicating with the lender when there is a delay or problem.

For most lenders participation on the lender's panel of conveyancers is at the absolute discretion of the the lender. Many lenders reserve the right to accept or reject any application without giving any reason. You should check your original application to join the Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel to see if you are entitled to a reason.

CQS accreditation is no guarantee to lender panel acceptance. Nevertheless the Council of Mortgage Lenders have indicated that it is likely to become a prerequisite for firms wishing to join their approved list of conveyancing solicitors. A number of Lenders now use the Conveyancing Quality Scheme accreditation as the starting point for Panel acceptance as is the case with HSBC.

You should communicate with Intelligent Finance to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook includes an express question for lenders to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Intelligent Finance in their Part 2’s state: It helps to quote the firm’s Intelligent Finance conveyancing panel number.