National Counties Building Society Conveyancing Panel Information

Many estate agents are suffering if their clients start out on the conveyancing process having appointed a solicitor who is not on the panel with the purchaser’s chosen lender. Many conveyancing firms are only discovering when they begin working on a case that they are no longer able to work with that lender. Given the inevitable resultant delays in the transaction the chances of an abortive deal increases dramatically. in the circumstances there is understandable anguish on the part of the estate agent as a result of the lost time should the client have to change lawyers.

Criteria differ from lender to lender. 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):

List of all those staff who work within the conveyancing team

SRA or equivalent regulator registration number where applicable

Full complaints history for each licensed conveyancer

Full disciplinary history for each conveyancing solicitor

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

List of fee-earners who are foreign qualified

and Conveyancing Quality Scheme

Charge registration history

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

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

The answer to this question really depends on the reason that your firm has been removed off the National Counties Building Society 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 compliance officer you will need systems to identify patterns of breaches. Even if you don't consider there to be regulatory implications the firms COFA should give some thought to whether she/he needs to take any action as result of being removed from the National Counties Building Society conveyancing panel.

The Law Society’s CQS accreditation 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 approved list of conveyancing solicitors. A number of Lenders now use the Conveyancing Quality Scheme accreditation as the starting point for Panel approval as is the case with Astra Mortgages.

You would be advised to get in touch with National Counties Building Society to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook includes a specific section for lenders to set out who to contact to obtain standard documents. National Counties Building Society in their Part 2’s state: It is likely that you will need to disclose the firm’s National Counties Building Society solicitors panel number.