MPowered Mortgages Conveyancing Panel Information

The CML do not keep duplicates of P2 requirements Pre January 2011. The CML advise that you make a request of MPowered Mortgages directly.

Section 16.2.1 of Part 1 of the Handbook relevant to a solicitor on the MPowered Mortgages conveyancing panel reads ‘Our mortgage secures further advances. Consequently, when a further advance is required for alterations or improvements to the property we will not normally instruct a member of our conveyancing panel but if you are instructed the appropriate provisions of this Handbook will apply’.

We can't comment specifically on MPowered Mortgages. Many major lenders are now introducing ‘file auditing’ as standard practice in relation to completed matters. This raises questions of confidentiality in relation to the borrower and the purpose to which the results of such audits will be put. The starting point is to remember that the file does not belong to your firm, it belongs to the ‘client’. But, of course, we will normally have two clients – the buyer and the lender - and you will owe a duty of confidentiality to each. So basically, you have to separate the file and just send the lender the parts solely relating to themselves. But, of course, as this will basically be correspondence with the lender, mortgage instructions etc.

Check with your COLP but a firm should not send the complete conveyancing file without the buyer client’s express consent – and if she is in dispute with the lender she is hardly likely to agree. However, if the lender can establish a prima facie case of fraud, then you may be under an obligation to disclose the whole file.

The emerging convention is that lenders are including an authority to disclose in loan application forms to counter this problem. Mortgage Express v Sawali, [2010] EWHC 3054 (Ch) indicates that such provisions are valid. Please click here for more information about that case.

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

• Current and historic missed priority dates
• Number of conveyancing cases by lender
• Disclosure/Notification to Lender analysis indicating frequency and nature of disclosures - to include benchmarking analysis against aggregate data
• Analysis as to the nature of clients (e.g.existing/new/seen in person)
• Average time frame to send deeds to the lender (calculated from completion date or title registration)

In this situation please clarify on the application what steps you have taken to find out the reasons behind cancellation of your MPowered Mortgages panel membership. In particular please provide details if you have received communications from the lender. E.G. before termination of your panel membership did you receive any letters or calls from the lender putting you on notice?

You need to contact MPowered Mortgages to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook contains an explicit section for banks to set out who to contact to obtain standard documents. MPowered Mortgages in their Part 2’s state: You will need to disclose the firm’s MPowered Mortgages conveyancing panel number.