Sainsbury's Bank Conveyancing Panel Information

The CML Part II requirements of Sainsbury's Bank are silent on this. Most mortgage companies deal with the question 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 Sainsbury's Bank’s interest. To be absolutely sure of Sainsbury's Bank requirements in this regard please check the Terms and Conditions of Sainsbury's Bank’s conveyancing panel membership.

What you should do largely depends on the reason that your firm has been removed off the Sainsbury's Bank 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 Sainsbury's Bank conveyancing panel.

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

There are various requirements you need to follow if you wish to comply with your lender client’s instructions as set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook. (a) You must take reasonable steps to verify that there are no discrepancies between the description of the property as valued and the title and other documents which a reasonably competent conveyancer should obtain, and, if there are, you must tell Sainsbury's Bank immediately. (b) You should take reasonable steps to verify that the assumptions stated by the valuer about the title (for example, its tenure, easements, boundaries and restrictions on its use) in the valuation and as stated in Sainsbury's Bank’s mortgage offer are correct. If they are not, please let Sainsbury's Bank know as soon as possible as it will be necessary for Sainsbury's Bank to check with the valuer whether the valuation needs to be revised. Sainsbury's Bank conveyancing panel solicitors are not expected to assume the role of valuer. Sainsbury's Bank are simply trying to ensure that the valuer has valued the property based on correct information. (III) Sainsbury's Bank recommend that you should advise the borrower that there may be defects in the property which are not revealed by the inspection carried out by their valuer and there may be omissions or inaccuracies in the report which do not matter to them as a lender but which would matter to the borrower. Sainsbury's Bank recommend that, if we send a copy of a valuation report that Sainsbury's Bank have obtained, you should also advise the borrower that the borrower should not rely on the report in deciding whether to proceed with the purchase and that he obtains his own more detailed report on the condition and value of the property, based on a fuller inspection such as a homebuyers report or comprehensive survey. If you do not receive a copy of the valuation you can always ask for a copy of one from Sainsbury's Bank or the borrower. You still need to comply with the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook Requirement relating to valuation reports even if you don't receive one directly. Failure to comply not only runs the risk of facing a claim by the lender but also being removed from the Sainsbury's Bank conveyancing panel

In this situation please clarify on the form what steps you have taken to discover the reasons behind cancellation of your Sainsbury's Bank panel membership. In particular please provide details if you have received communications from the lender. E.G. before termination of your panel membership did you receive any letters or calls from the lender informing you as to why they reached this decision?

You need to communicate with Sainsbury's Bank to obtain standard documents. The The Council of Mortgage Lenders Handbook incorporates an explicit inquiry for banks to cite who to contact to obtain standard documents. Sainsbury's Bank in their Part 2’s state: It helps to quote your Sainsbury's Bank solicitors panel reference.