Bank of Scotland Conveyancing Panel Information

We only know of a couple of banks that operate a separate conveyancing panel where the mortgage advance is over a certain level. You should nevertheless check directly with Bank of Scotland. 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 Bank of Scotland

Each lender has different criteria. We do not hold specific requirements relating to the questions raised as part of the application to be on the Bank of Scotland 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

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

SRA or equivalent regulator registration number where applicable

Full complaints history for each conveyancing solicitor

Automated alerting to inform lenders when there is a fundamental change to the firm (e.g. change of management)

Whether the firm is able to operate in other jurisdictions

Number of lender conveyancing panels the firm is currently on

Full career history for each licensed conveyancer including registration date with Council of Licensed Conveyancers

List of all those who can sign off the Certificate Of Title

and Conveyancing Quality Scheme

You will be aware of the trend in recent years for lenders such as Bank of Scotland 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 Bank of Scotland panel. The situation that you find yourself in is where your client’s purchaser has his/her own lawyer and Bank of Scotland have appointed a separate lawyer to act on their behalf where the new UK Finance Part 3 requirements apply. Section 11.1 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook Part 3 requires Bank of Scotland’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 Bank of Scotland. You will no doubt be required to undertake directly to Bank of Scotland’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 Bank of Scotland conveyancing panel.

Assuming that your practice in is on the Bank of Scotland conveyancing panel and you are instructed by them in relation to a leasehold property, you must report to them if it becomes apparent that the landlord is either absent or insolvent. If Bank of Scotland are to lend, they may require indemnity insurance. In any event,you will need to check Bank of Scotland’s specific requirements. Notwithstanding whether Bank of Scotland will lend in such circumstances you still need to advise the borrower (unless you are acting for Bank of Scotland alone) as to the risks of buying a property with an insolvent or absentee freeholder.

In this situation please clarify on the form what action you have taken to discover the reasons behind cancellation of your Bank of Scotland 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 contact Bank of Scotland to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook incorporates a specific inquiry for lenders to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Bank of Scotland in their Part 2’s state: It helps to disclose the firm’s Bank of Scotland solicitors panel number.