MPowered Mortgages Conveyancing Panel Information

The Council of Mortgage Lenders, together with MPowered Mortgages and other lenders developed a standard set of instructions where a conveyancer is acting for a lender such as MPowered Mortgages alone in a residential conveyancing matter. These obligations are contained at Part III of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook and are to be followed in conjunction with Sections One and Two. The CML have published an example requirements letter to the borrower’s conveyancer for adaptation by the lender's conveyancer, and sets out to the borrower's conveyancer, the documentary and information requirements of the lender's panel conveyancer.

We only know of a couple of lenders that operate a separate conveyancing panel where the mortgage advance is over a certain amount. You should nevertheless check directly with MPowered Mortgages. 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 MPowered Mortgages

The CML Part II requirements of MPowered Mortgages are silent on this. Most mortgage companies deal with the issue of file retention via their Terms and Conditions where they generally provide that for evidential purposes, the firm must keep the file for at least of 6 years from the date of the mortgage. Data imagining is normally suitable compliance with this requirement. Many lenders point out in that it is the practice of some fraudsters to demand the conveyancing file on completion in order to destroy evidence that may later be used against them. It is therefore important to retain these documents to protect MPowered Mortgages’s interest. To be absolutely sure of MPowered Mortgages requirements in this regard please check the Terms and Conditions of MPowered Mortgages’s conveyancing panel membership.

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

In this situation please clarify on the form what action you have taken to discover 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 cessation of your panel membership did you receive any letters or calls from the lender putting you on notice?

You need to get in touch with MPowered Mortgages to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook incorporates a specific question for lenders to enumerate who to contact to obtain standard documents. MPowered Mortgages in their Part 2’s state: Please remember to quote the firm’s MPowered Mortgages solicitors panel reference.