Metro Bank Conveyancing Panel Information

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

• Average time frame to register charges at the Land Registry
• The percentage of the firm’s business which is conveyancing (broken down into sale/purchase and remortgage)
• Average time frame to send deeds to the lender (calculated from completion date or title registration)
• Buy to Let transactions
• Number of conveyancing cases by lender

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

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 Metro Bank conveyancing panel to see if you are entitled to a reason.

CQS membership gives 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 panels. A number of mortgage companies now use the scheme as the starting point for Panel approval as is the case with HSBC.

You need to get in touch with Metro Bank to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook incorporates an explicit section for banks to reveal who to contact to obtain standard documents. Metro Bank in their Part 2’s state: Always remember to quote the firm’s Metro Bank conveyancing panel number.