MBS Lending Ltd Conveyancing Panel Information

The information on this page is designed to keep solicitors and licensed conveyancers abreast of latest requirements changes by MBS Lending Ltd and to assist in remaining on the MBS Lending Ltd Conveyancing Panel.

MBS Lending Ltd Conveyancing Panel Information:

What are the MBS Lending Ltd conveyancing panel criteria?
Unlike the CML the Building Society Mortgage Instructions deal with this. Section A.12 states ‘In order to act on our behalf your firm or company must be a member of our conveyancing panel provided we are a society that operates one – see specific requirements for details of our arrangements. The Special Requirements state:

All conveyancers are subject to panel requirements and must be approved onto the MBS Lending's conveyancing panel.  Please refer to the mortgage completions team if further information is required.

You must also comply with the terms and conditions of your MBS Lending Ltd solicitor panel appointment.

A long standing client of my firm is purchasing a semi detached house for £607,500 in Mill Hill requiring a mortgage advance over GBP 415k. I am on the MBS Lending Ltd conveyancing panel but do MBS Lending Ltd have a separate approved panel when the advance is above 350k?
We only know of two or three banks that operate a separate approved solicitors panel where the mortgage advance is over a certain threshold. You should nevertheless check directly with MBS Lending Ltd. 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 MBS Lending Ltd
A recent SRA survey reveals that three quarters of solicitors have been removed or threatened with removal from a lender conveyancing panel. MBS Lending Ltd and other building societies have restricted their panel over the years. Why?
The feeling from lenders generally (we can not speak for MBS Lending Ltd specifically), is that for too long solicitors have concentrated on their duty of care to their purchasing client, and have paid scant attention to the duty they owe to the lender, whom they conveniently forget is also their client.

Looking from the lenders’ perspective, it has to be said that there are pressures to encourage smaller panels. The Financial Services Authority regards the open panel system as a major contributor to mortgage fraud and negligence cases, and has been leaning on lenders to move to proactive panel management, which is more expensive the larger the panel. Hence it is becoming more common for lenders to charge fees, and/or require extensive form-filling, from would-be panel members

MBS Lending Ltd and other BSA lenders are in varying stages of reviewing their approach to vetting firms on their conveyancing panels, to ensure their ongoing exposure to unsuitable firms is reduced.

Are the Council of Licensed Conveyancers taking any action to protect licensed conveyancers from being removed from lender panels?
The CLC has entered dialogue with lenders and their representative bodies to see whether and how the risks that lenders wish to mitigate could be addressed through the regulatory framework rather than ad hoc arrangements that can differ from lender to lender. It is likely that that the CLC have been in touch with lenders such as MBS Lending Ltd in the recent past
Given that I am the COLP for my firm should I be thinking about SRA Handbook implications if my firm is withdrawn off the MBS Lending Ltd conveyancing panel?
What you should do largely depends on the reason that your firm has been removed off the MBS Lending Ltd 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 COLP you will need systems to identify patterns of breaches. Even if you don't consider there to be regulatory implications, the firms COFA needs to consider whether he or she needs to take any action as result of being removed from the conveyancing panel of MBS Lending Ltd.
I noticed the following question on my PI renewal form this year ‘Has your Firm been asked by a lender to agree to more onerous terms and conditions than provided for in the BSA Mortgage Instructions?’ My firm is on the majority of approved panels including the MBS Lending Ltd conveyancing panel. We have Terms and Conditions of appointment which we are duty bound to comply with. Should I reference these Terms?
The key here is the caveat ‘more onerous’.

You have to try and take an objective view as to whether the Terms relating to the MBS Lending Ltd conveyancing appointment (or other terms for other lenders) are ‘more onerous’ than the BSA Mortgage Instructions. Depending on the Terms you may need to provide details on your renewal form. If you are in any doubt please call your broker to discuss before completing the answer.

Are figures published regarding the MBS Lending Ltd conveyancing panel size and the number of conveyancing firms removed from their panel each quarter?
With lenders and solicitors working so closely together it is surprising that there has not been greater demand for the introduction of a bit of transparency regarding not just the figures for the MBS Lending Ltd conveyancing panel but for all mortgage panel listings
What lender panels do you receive the most questions about?
BSA lenders do not come within the top 20 lenders in terms of frequency of questions. The most popular lender panels in terms of questions are as follows:

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Average number of days to register title including a charge in favour of MBS Lending Ltd
This information relates to purchase only and not remortgages.
YearDays*
2024 [no data]
2023 [no data]
2022 [no data]
2021 [no data]
2020 [no data]
2019 [no data]
* Data aggregated from sources including COMPLETIONmonitor