Pepper Money Conveyancing Panel Information

No such training is arranged by the CML but they do provided numerous general conveyancing related conferences which are attended by firms on the Pepper Money conveyancing panel. Lexsure intend to run specific lender focused seminars in the coming months including a webinar on Pepper Money’s Part 2 obligations. Practitioners on the Pepper Money conveyancing panel will be invited. Information about the webinar will be communicated as part of the LENDERmonitor P2 change Notifications.

The Law Society of Scotland has advised that solicitors should check their panel status with lenders prior to accepting client instructions to act. The advice is lender-agnostic as it does not relate specifically to solicitors on the Pepper Money conveyancing panel. The recommendation 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 moneysavingexpert.com

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 Pepper Money conveyancing panel. Typically lenders need to have full knowledge of a firm including (but not limited to):

Whether the firm has ever knowingly accepted instructions on transactions involving Sale and Rent Back, Back to Back, Exchange and Delayed Completion and Lease Option, Below Market Value.

List of all those staff who work within the conveyancing team

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

Automated alerting to inform lenders when there is a fundamental change to the firm (e.g. new disciplinary action)

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

PII Cover details, including, if relevant, whether the firm is or has been in the assigned risks pool and structure of cover – basic

Areas of Law covered by the firm

Full disciplinary history for each licensed conveyancer

Full disciplinary history for each conveyancing solicitor

What you should do largely depends on the reason that your firm has been removed off the Pepper Money 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 COLP 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 Pepper Money conveyancing panel.

The best placed professionals to answer this question are your insurance brokers. The chances are that on the basis that you have not been removed for fraud or negligence reasons that there will be little or no impact. The main reason why a firm would be removed off of a lender panel is due to low volume of conveyancing cases although there may be a number of criteria for Pepper Money solicitor panel membership. Please remember that it is always important that you complete your insurance forms accurately.

You need to communicate with Pepper Money to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook includes an express question for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Pepper Money in their Part 2’s state: You will need to quote the firm’s Pepper Money conveyancing panel number.