National Counties Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

The Scottish Law Society has suggested that solicitors should check their lender panel status prior to accepting client instructions to act. The advice is lender-agnostic as it does not relate specifically to solicitors on the National Counties Building Society conveyancing panel. The suggestion 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 two or three banks that operate a distinct conveyancing panel where the mortgage advance is over a certain threshold. You should nevertheless check directly with National Counties Building Society. 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 National Counties Building Society

Although not necessarily published, lenders have varying criteria . We do not hold specific requirements relating to the questions raised as part of the application to be on the National Counties Building Society conveyancing panel. Typically lenders need to have full knowledge of a firm including (but not limited to):

and Conveyancing Quality Scheme

House price discrepancies (declared to lender vs. registered at Land Registry)

SRA or equivalent regulator registration number where applicable

Full complaints history for each licensed conveyancer

List of all those staff who work within the conveyancing team

Full disciplinary history for each conveyancing solicitor

Whether the firm has ever applied for accreditation and the outcome of the application

Full career history for each solicitor including admission date to the relevant Law Society

Charge registration history

List of fee-earners who are foreign qualified

12 people attempt to locate a conveyancing practitioner on the National Counties Building Society panel every 4 weeks in Hendon. Feel free to contact the Lexsure team who will tell how your firm can be identified by those searching for conveyancing in Hendon.

CQS accreditation is 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 remain on their approved list of firms. Some mortgage companies now use the scheme as the starting point for Panel approval as is the case with HSBC.

You need to communicate with National Counties Building Society to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook includes an explicit question for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. National Counties Building Society in their Part 2’s state: Don’t forget to quote the firm’s National Counties Building Society solicitors panel reference.