Masthaven Bank Conveyancing Panel Information

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 Masthaven Bank conveyancing panel. The recommendation 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 only know of a couple of lenders that operate a separate conveyancing panel where the mortgage advance is over a certain threshold. You should nevertheless check directly with Masthaven Bank. At one stage HSBC would only allow Sole practitioners to act for them where the mortgage was below £150,000. We are not sure if HSBC still operate such a condition. In your case it is best to check with Masthaven Bank

The majority of lenders do not operate a specific buy to let conveyancing panel but we are hearing about a few that do. We do not know what the position is with Masthaven Bank as at todays date. If you're about to receive instructions from a client on a buy to let purchase with a mortgage from Masthaven Bank we suggest that you call Masthaven Bank to check the position.

You need to be careful 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. Many lenders make it clear to their panel firms that where a non-panel member firm is instructed by one of their mortgage applicants, the lender must 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.

We would recommend that you supply 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 a complete picture of what has happened.

You would be advised to contact Masthaven Bank to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook includes an explicit section for lenders to set out who to contact to obtain standard documents. Masthaven Bank in their Part 2’s state: You will need to disclose the firm’s Masthaven Bank conveyancing panel number.