Keystone Property Finance Conveyancing Panel Information

No such training is arranged by the CML but they do organise numerous general conveyancing related conferences which are attended by firms on the Keystone Property Finance conveyancing panel. Lexsure intend to run specific lender focused seminars in the coming months including a webinar on Keystone Property Finance’s Part 2 requirements. Law firms on the Keystone Property Finance conveyancing panel will be invited. Further details will be communicated as part of the LENDERmonitor P2 change Notifications.

We are not aware of any intention on the part of the CML to develop such a register.

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

Keystone Property Finance approved panel lawyers have to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook instructions relating to Transfer of Equity. These are set out in Section 16.3. First, your firm must approve the form of Transfer of Equity (which should be in the Land Registry's standard form) and, if Keystone Property Finance require, the deed of covenant on their behalf. You will need to check Keystone Property Finance CML Part 2 conditions to see if Keystone Property Finance have standard forms of transfer and deed of covenant. Please note that this requirement can change from one transaction to another so do check! Second,When drafting or approving a transfer, you should bear in mind that: although the transfer should state that it is subject to the mortgage (identified by date and parties), it need give no details of the terms of the mortgage; the transfer need not state the amount of the mortgage debt. If it does, the figure should include both principal and interest at the date of completion, which you must check ; there should be no statement that all interest has been paid to date. Further obligations are set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook which have to be followed by all firms on the Keystone Property Finance conveyancing panel

You should 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 negatively affect your application but gives the Law Society a complete picture of what has happened.

You would be advised to communicate with Keystone Property Finance to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook has an explicit section for banks to set out who to contact to obtain standard documents. Keystone Property Finance in their Part 2’s state: It is likely that you will need to disclose your Keystone Property Finance solicitors panel reference.