Keystone Property Finance Conveyancing Panel Information

The fact of the matter is that estate agents are feeling the pain if their clients start out on the conveyancing process using a conveyancer who is not on the panel with the purchaser’s chosen lender. Many conveyancing firms are only discovering when they begin working on a case that they are no longer able to work with that lender. Given the inevitable resultant delays in the transaction the chances of an abortive deal increases dramatically. in the circumstances there is understandable anguish on the part of the estate agent as a result of the lost time should the client have to change solicitors .

There are many reports available, five of which are as follows:

• Evidence of undertaking logs
• The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale/purchase and remortgage)
• Current and historic missed priority dates
• Average mortgage advance
• Buy to Let transactions

What you should do largely depends on the reason that your firm has been removed off the Keystone Property Finance conveyancing panel. The top 3 reasons are as follows:

1. lack of transactions
2. the lawyer is a sole practitioner
3. as part of the HSBC panel reduction.

In these three circumstances it is unlikely that you would expected to take any action. Disclosure and other compliance considerations are more likely to be relevant if the reason for removal is due to breaches of lender requirements or allegations of fraud or negligence. Whether the reasoning should trigger a disclosable 'material' breach will depend on the firm and the circumstances around possible failures to comply with the SRA Authorisation Rules, and the SRA will judge each case on its own merits. Factors such as the detriment or risk of detriment to clients, the scale of the issue and overall impact on the firm will need to be considered in deciding whether a failure is 'material'. As the compliance officer you will need systems to identify patterns of breaches. Even if you don't consider there to be regulatory implications the firms COFA should give some thought to whether she/he needs to take any action as result of being removed from the Keystone Property Finance conveyancing panel.

Please tread carefully here as what you are suggesting may not be acceptable to the mortgage company. It is possible that you (as a non-panel firm) or the mortgage applicant are not at liberty instruct a panel firm of your choice. Lenders such as Nationwide BS make it clear to their panel firms that where a non-panel member firm is instructed by one of their mortgage applicants, the lender will appoint a panel firm to carry out its instructions and to liaise with the borrower's conveyancing firm. You also need to make the costs implications and potential for delay very clear to your client.

It would be advisable to provide details of the date of removal, information on the reason for removal, date of appeal and any reason given for reinstatement. This should not adversely impact your application but gives the CQS team viability as to what has occured.

You should get in touch with Keystone Property Finance to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook includes an individual question for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Keystone Property Finance in their Part 2’s state: It is likely that you will need to quote the firm’s Keystone Property Finance solicitors panel number.