St James Place Conveyancing Panel Information

There are many reports available, five of which are as follows:

• Current and historic missed priority dates
• Disclosure/Notification to Lender analysis indicating frequency and nature of disclosures - to include benchmarking analysis against aggregate data
• Average time frame to register charges at the Land Registry
• Buy to Let transactions
• Analysis as to the nature of clients (e.g.existing/new/seen in person)

Most lenders do not operate a specific buy to let conveyancing panel but we are hearing about a few that do. We do not know what the position is with St James Place as at todays date. If you're about to receive instructions from a client on a buy to let purchase with a mortgage from St James Place we suggest that you call St James Place to check the position.

For most lenders participation on the lender's panel of conveyancers is at the absolute discretion of the the lender. Many lenders reserve the right to accept or reject any application without giving any reason. You should check your original application to join the St James Place conveyancing panel to see if you are entitled to a reason.

St James Place approved panel lawyers have to comply with the Part II instructions relating to Transfer of Equity. These are set out in Section 16.3. First, your firm must approve the form of Transfer of Equity (which should be in the Land Registry's standard form) and, if St James Place require, the deed of covenant on their behalf. You will need to check St James Place CML Part 2 conditions to see if St James Place have standard forms of transfer and deed of covenant. Please note that this requirement can change from one transaction to another so do check! Second,When drafting or approving a transfer, you should bear in mind that: although the transfer should state that it is subject to the mortgage (identified by date and parties), it need give no details of the terms of the mortgage; the transfer need not state the amount of the mortgage debt. If it does, the figure should include both principal and interest at the date of completion, which you must check ; there should be no statement that all interest has been paid to date. Further obligations are set out in the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook which have to be followed by all firms on the St James Place conveyancing panel

You should supply details of the date of removal, information on the reason for removal, date of appeal and any reason given for reinstatement. This should not adversely impact your firm’s application but gives the Law Society viability as to what has happened.

You would be advised to communicate with St James Place to obtain standard documents. The CML Handbook contains an explicit section for lenders to reveal who to contact to obtain standard documents. St James Place in their Part 2’s state: Don’t forget to disclose your St James Place solicitors panel number.